MacLean Engineering has entered a new testing partnership with Ontario-based Northern Construction Academy (NCA) to accelerate the introduction of the GR8 EV Surface Grader to the global mining industry.
Under the agreement, MacLean will utilize NCA’s Sudbury-area training property during the summer and fall of 2026 as a dedicated field-testing site for the GR8 EV Surface Grader to validate performance, duty cycles, and operator interaction for this first-of-its-kind battery-electric surface grader.
“This initiative reflects MacLean’s ongoing investment in Sudbury as a key centre for its research, testing, and product development activities. The use of a site like NCA’s will be very important to the success of our product testing phase of the GR8 EV Surface Grader,” said David Jacques, P. Eng, vice president of Engineering and Surface Mining Vehicles at MacLean.
“The scale of the property and the variety of terrain conditions are a perfect fit for our needs, and we’ve really enjoyed having Eric’s [Morin, operations manager at Northern Construction Academy] ongoing involvement in the project. Our team, along with the valuable input from people like Eric, has developed a fantastic new product, designed and built in Canada, that makes decarbonization of ancillary equipment like graders much more accessible than previously thought.”
MacLean has previously used NCA’s services to provide grader operator training for its employees. This next phase represents a natural evolution by bringing real-world testing and expert operator feedback directly into the product development process.
Source: MacLean via LinkedIn