JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) − Diversified resources group Rio Tinto will double its fleet of driverless haul trucks at its iron-ore operations in Western Australia and deploy them at Yandicoogina, the largest mine in the Pilbara.

The move follows a two-year trial of autonomous haulage system (AHS) technology on trucks at the West Angelas mine, which has performed above expectations.




The trucks, which previously only dumped waste product, will now dump ore for the first time.

“It will be the first operational deployment of this technology in Australia, or anywhere on this scale. The trucks will be used for all haulage requirements in the Junction South East (JSE) pit, moving high-grade, low-grade and waste material from multiple loading units,” said Rio Tinto Iron Ore Pilbara president Greg Lilleyman.




The AHS project has been under way at West Angelas since December 2008, operating around the clock for more than two years, moving more than 42-million tons of material in about 145 000 cycles, travelling more than 450 000 km.

In that time, performing a number of tasks, the AHS technology has demonstrated its value to the business, especially in the areas of health, safety and productivity, Lilleyman said.

The AHS trucks use pre-defined courses and navigate autonomously from loading units to dump locations, including waste dumps, stockpiles and crushers. The main navigation system is GPS, combined with a secondary navigation process.

The existing five Komatsu 930E trucks fitted with Komatsu’s ‘Frontrunner’ AHS system, will be moved from West Angelas to the Yandicoogina mine, where they will combine with five new 930E trucks, and operate the JSE pit.

The ten autonomous trucks will operate at Yandicoogina JSE pit under the control of Yandicoogina mine management, supported by the AHS support team. They are expected to be fully deployed by April next year.

The deployment of the driverless truck fleet forms part of Rio Tinto’s the Mine of the FutureTM programme, which was launched in 2008.

The programme creates next generation technologies for mining operations that result in greater efficiency, lower production costs, and improved health, safety and environmental performance.

