Gold mining company Gold Fields has reached agreement with global engineering group Sandvik to trial a battery electric vehicle (BEV) underground loader at its South Deep gold mine, with the project starting towards the back end of next year, Gold Fields EVP for South Africa Martin Preece said on Tuesday. Preece was responding to media reports of Sandvik undertaking a two-year BEV production study in Australia in partnership with the Johannesburg- and New York-listed Gold Fields.