THE LEADER VOLUME 20 • NUMBER 6
Editorial Director Paul Moore BSc( Hons), MSc Email: paul @ im-mining. com
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Autonomous trolley
Building on its legacy of innovation in autonomous mining, Komatsu has accomplished the significant milestone of autonomously operating a power agnostic electric drive truck while connected to a dynamic trolley line.
Komatsu’ s trolley assist system is a solution designed to help operations reduce carbon emissions, extend engine life and support the journey toward a zero-emissions future. By connecting haul trucks to an overhead power line during uphill travel, the system delivers electric power where it’ s needed most, improving energy efficiency and enabling trucks to travel on grade faster when compared to standard diesel models. Integrating this with Komatsu’ s FrontRunner Autonomous Haulage System introduces new capabilities in mining automation, enabling further fuel savings and productivity gains.
Komatsu says this achievement marks the first time in the mining industry’ s history that power has been transferred to a moving, autonomously operated haul truck via a trolley system. The accomplishment represents a critical step in Komatsu’ s commitment to helping mining customers reduce emissions and enhance productivity through advanced electrification and autonomous solutions.
“ This milestone demonstrates the strength of our commitment to improving our integrated technology strategy, combining autonomous haulage with dynamic energy transfer and trolley capabilities,” said Martin Cavassa, Director, Global Business Development Autonomous Systems, Komatsu.“ The ability to seamlessly transfer power to a moving truck operating without a driver is a pivotal achievement in our roadmap toward decarbonising mining operations and provides the pathway for managing battery operated trucks autonomously.”
Komatsu launched FrontRunner in 2008, pioneering the world’ s first commercial application of autonomous haulage. Today, with a fleet of more than 875 autonomous haul trucks commissioned worldwide, Komatsu customers have collectively hauled over 10 billion metric tonnes of material. A primary enabler of moving that amount of material is due to Komatsu’ s autonomous haulage solution working with ultra-class trucks, such as the 980E with a 363 metric tonne payload capacity.
The company concludes:“ This breakthrough further underscores Komatsu’ s commitment to delivering integrated solutions that create value for our customers. By uniting the proven reliability of electric drive trucks with the autonomous capabilities of FrontRunner, Komatsu continues to offer mining customers solutions to achieve their productivity goals, reduce total cost of ownership and help meet the increasing global demand for essential minerals in a more efficient and responsible manner.”
At The Electric Mine 2025 conference, which ended just last month in Santiago, Chile, trolley was a big discussion point – not least as the first two trolley lines in South America are currently under construction, at Antofagasta Minerals’ Los Pelambres and at the Collahuasi mine, which are both world class copper operations.
At Collahuasi, Liebherr is working with the mining customer on a pilot project involving a 1 km trolley test line in the Rosario open pit utilising four Liebherr 400 ton class T284 trucks to evaluate its performance and future scalability. This pilot project is ongoing and is being carried out by a multidisciplinary team from Collahuasi and is governed by the operation’ s risk management cycle and enabled via a SERNAGEOMIN permit.
Antofagasta Minerals( AMSA) has partnered with ABB and Komatsu to implement a trolley system and electrification ready haul truck at Los Pelambres. The pilot of these two technologies is a cornerstone of AMSA’ s decarbonisation roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality. The project was presented by ABB’ s Global Sales Manager eMine at ABB, Ratna Kanth Dittakavi and Will Dougherty, GHG Alliance Project Manager at Komatsu. ABB brings the first ever ABB relocatable trolley system while Komatsu brings one of the only two prototypes in the world of trucks that will be the foundation to update diesel trucks to battery drive systems.
The new Cat ® Dynamic Energy Transfer( DET) solution was also in focus, which is set to be trialled at BHP’ s Escondida operation. At the conference, Thaddeus Litkenhus, Caterpillar Vice President Product Management – Resource Industries discussed DET being a key enabling technology for both diesel electric and battery electric machines as part of a possible energy transition pathway. He also talked more widely about how Caterpillar has reimagined technology to offer holistic services and solutions based on industry insights and explained how an integrated solution can address key change management challenges at a site.
Trolley was also the subject of a well received presentation by John Quispe, Energy Transition Technologies Research Leader at Minera Antamina. He talked about how the Antamina copper mine in Peru is moving forward with the research and implementation of a trolley system; among the main benefits identified were the improvement in energy efficiency, optimisation of fleet performance, integration of advanced monitoring systems, and a significant impact on reducing operating costs. However, implementation also comes with important challenges in a mature operation. Finally, the event also featued a special next generation trolley panel, with representatives from ABB, Komatsu, Caterpillar and BluVein, moderated by GHD’ s Danny O’ Reilly.
Paul Moore Editorial Director paul @ im-mining. com
International Mining | JUNE 2025 3