Driverless trucks are expected to be phased in at Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill iron ore mine in Western Australia from the second half of 2018.

The likely timetable for the adoption of autonomous vehicles was flagged by Barry Fitzgerald, the chief executive of Roy Hill, at the International Mining and Resources Conference in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Gina Rinehart and daughter Ginia on a pink mining truck at the Roy Hill iron ore mine.

"We, I think, are firmly of the view that autonomous trucks are the way of the future, which is clearly a major industry trend. At this point in time we are working towards looking at starting the final implementation, or the phased implementation, probably in the second half of next year," he said.

"The implementation model is driven by resources and as we develop the pit. So that when you go to autonomy, as we develop different pits we need to do it pit by pit by pit," he said.