MINING TRUCKS
Hitachi EH5000AC-3 trucks form part of the AHS
project at Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek
operation
them helps reduce downtime and cost per tonne.
All Hitachi AC-3 trucks are equipped with the
advanced Hitachi AC Drive Control System, which
provides the truck with operational stability.
Combined with legacy technologies from the
Euclid era, operator feedback about the
fundamental driving experience has always been
positive.”
Another feature added to Hitachi dump trucks is
Aerial Angle, which provides two features in one: a
360 degree virtual bird’s eye view of the truck to
improve visibility while the truck is stopped, and
accurate object detection while the truck is
traveling forward, with proprietary technology
which eliminates most false alarms.
HCM has also successfully been able to manage
hot weather, cold weather and dusty conditions
across multiple sites for Hitachi trucks in locations
such as in Mongolia (Tavan Tolgoi: TTJVCo),
HudBay Constancia in Peru and elsewhere. “Our
current challenge is overcoming the difficulties
associated with low atmospheric pressure at high
altitude; it is a critical duty of OEMs to provide
safe and productive equipment to the customers
who are working in this type of special condition.”
Lastly a note on trolley trucks. Hitachi is well
known as along with Komatsu having had the
greatest success in the trolley truck market
worldwide with fleets at Exxaro Grootegeluk,
Barrick Lumwana, Tuprag Kisladag, FQM
Kansanshi – including EH4500-2, EH3500AC-2
EH3500AC-3 and EH4000AC-3 models. The trolley
version of the EH5000AC-3 was launched in 2018,
including testing in Japan on a dedicated trial
trolley line. On market development, Hitachi told
IM: “While we have successfully delivered
multiple EH3500AC-3 and EH4000AC-3 trolley
trucks with very positive customer feedback, since
the release of the EH5000AC-3 trolley truck we
have had some discussions and preliminary
proposals, but HCM has not seen the product fully
accepted and commissioned to a customer to
date. HCM has engaged a third party to provide
more information on trolley operation, including
30 International Mining | APRIL 2020
the required infrastructure.
HCM is anticipating that this
type of enquiry will increase
as the global interest
toward reducing GHG is
growing exponentially.”
Hitachi says interest in
this segment has increased
dramatically in the last year
with a huge focus on carbon
footprint and carbon
reduction. HCM actively
participates in global
conferences as well as regional and local meetings
to show its interest and provide solutions. Hitachi
says it is also working on technologies to further
reduce the emissions of GHG, to meet and exceed
the expectations of the mining industry, which is
interpreted to mean R&D in alternative power
solutions such as different hybrid solutions and
battery haulage potential.
Homing in on automation, at its first
commercial AHS deployment at Whitehaven Coal
Maules Creek, HCM told IM that currently, system
deployment is in progress for commissioning at
Whitehaven. Operational know-how, rules and
safe work procedures have been updated and
implemented, so on-the-job training is also in
progress. In a presentation in 2019, Whitehaven
Coal Chief Operating Officer, Jamie Frankcombe
stated that the mine was transitioning to an
operational area for AHS from December 2019. He
also said the initial AHS fleet would comprise one
EX3600 excavator and six EH5000AC-3 trucks.
Following a six-month period, a transition to one
EX8000 excavator and nine EH5000 trucks would
occur. Then, additional EX8000 led fleets would be
added in six-monthly intervals based on
“performance gateway” achievements, with a
target of five fleets and up to 45 trucks within
three years.
This is a rapid ramp-up of automation, but
Maules Creek is being expanded over this
timeframe, with Whitehaven expecting production
to go from 11.7 Mt run of mine (ROM) in the year
ended June 30, 2019, to 16 Mt/y of ROM coal. This
expansion will also see the company incorporate
in-pit dumping into its operations as it looks to
lower its operating cost.
Frankcombe also went further than a lot of
other miners using AHS in outlining the estimated
operating cost impact of introducing this
technology into the operation. He said the cost
benefit of integrating autonomous haulage into
Maules Creek equated to A$3.70-$4.10 ($2.53-
2.81) per product tonne – including the related 16
Mt/y expansion. The operating costs benefits
included the direct savings associated with AHS
across personnel – offset by AHS service fees – of
A$1.40/product tonne, in addition to a A$0.90-
$1.10/product tonne impact from increased
productivity leading to lower capital intensity and
a reduction in fixed costs across overheads,
wages, equipment hire and coal handling
preparation plant fixed costs. On the capital
benefits side, the low capital intensity of the
expansion derived from in-pit dumping, cast
blasting and the AHS trucking fleet would drive a
capital saving on a unit basis of A$1.40-
$1.60/product tonne, he outlined.
Lastly a word on Roy Hill Iron Ore (RHIO) where
a mixed fleet of 77 haul trucks (which includes 24
Hitachi EH5000AC-3) is set to be converted from
manned to autonomous operation by ASI Mining
under a subcontract from Epiroc. The mine also
utilises a Wenco FMS, Wenco of course being part
of Hitachi. HCM says it is committed to supporting
Roy Hill extensively in its transition toward AHS,
“both independently as HCM and through Wenco.
Wenco FMS has been the incumbent system on
site for some years and as such when RHIO
approached Wenco to support their transition to
AHS, Wenco started working on the interface to
the ASI system. Wenco has also been a strong
advocate for the ISO 23725 standard of defining
the protocols between FMS and AHS systems and
the interface they are building will be a good
template for an ISO standard interface. HCM is
committed to managing the Hitachi fleet at RHIO
in a practical and efficient manner, and indeed
supporting the broader autonomy goals of RHIO
beyond simply AHS.”
HCM also still has trucks running at the Meandu
coal mine test site and says it plans to keep
operating the AHS site for system upgrading and
new functionalities development in accordance
with market needs. Outside of Australia in terms
of AHS deployment, HCM told IM: “We are in some
general discussions at this stage. Our basic scope
is to have our AHS solutions available in the global
market in future. There are a number of companies
interested in engaging with Hitachi in the area of
AHS, and we have a team based in Brisbane
leading this global initiative.”
Retrofit of AHS is already available on all
Hitachi AC-3 models. It is yet to be made available
on other OEM trucks although it is something
HCM says it intends to offer. “We are focused on
developing this in line with the fact that a certain
level of open autonomy/interoperable system
capability will be required by customers.”
Hitachi and Wenco also offer V2X products
which can support existing manned operations
and potentially be utilised in an autonomy or
“semi-autonomy” environment, but V2X wasn’t
designed for use in AHS environments, as it
provides information to operators of manned
equipment and it isn’t part of the obstacle
detection and collision avoidance solutions
onboard the AHS vehicles. Hitachi AHS is therefore
not relying on V2X technology but rather different
sensing technologies, monitoring and control