MINE AUTOMATION
to continue being an industry leader in autonomy ,” said Martin Cavassa , Business Development Manager , Autonomous Systems at Komatsu . “ Our highly skilled AHS team comprises of application and technical experts , as well as training and support specialists who possess in-depth knowledge and expertise . In every engagement , we bring that expertise to the table to help our customers achieve all the value that FrontRunner can deliver to their operations .”
BHP Spence goes all autonomous
Teamwork , greater competitiveness , safety and sustainability of the mine operation are among important benefits that BHP Spence in Chile recently celebrated after achieving full autonomy of the copper mining operations , having converted its fleet of 33 mining trucks and five blasthole drilling rigs , with zero incidents and managing to reduce exposure to safety risks by up to 90 %.
Spence celebrated this milestone together with national and local authorities , who were able to learn on the ground how BHP continues to move towards autonomy , which allows for safer , more efficient operations and brings the company closer to the mining of the future .
“ This has been a sustainable technological transformation process that today allows our operation to achieve full autonomy , with a fleet of 33 trucks and five drilling rigs , which we managed to implement a month ahead of schedule and with zero incidents . We are talking about an automation process in which people have always been at the centre , with the aim of building a safer , more efficient , diverse and inclusive workplace ,” highlighted the President of Pampa Norte , the BHP business unit that includes Spence and Cerro Colorado , Cristian Sandoval .
The converted trucks at Spence are 363 t 980E-5 ultraclass models from Komatsu , with the autonomous haulage system used being Komatsu ’ s Frontrunner . The drills are Pit Viper 351 models using Epiroc ’ s autonomous drilling system . Initially the drills and trucks were monitored from a control room about 2 km from the pit but the main focus of the mine monitoring is now the BHP Integrated Operations Center in Santiago .
The transition to autonomy at BHP Spence has demonstrated in the field that it is possible to reduce people ’ s exposure to risks associated with the industry by up to 90 %, in addition to contributing to generating greater competitiveness and allowing the company a more efficient use of its resources .
BHP Vice President of Technology at Minerals Americas , Pedro Hidalgo , commented that this is the beginning of a great challenge to make the
BHP Spence has now converted its fleet of 33 mining trucks and five blasthole drilling rigs to autonomy
mine safer and more competitive every day . “ Today we have the mission of getting the best out of this technology . We need to go further and analyse the data that automation gives us , how we can work on it and make better decisions that make our operation more efficient . Spence today is a guide , where much of the learning will also be transferred to BHP Escondida to continue working on the future of mining .”
Caterpillar continues to grow AHS fleet plus advances auto drilling
Caterpillar has not released any figures recently for a total number of its autonomous trucks running using Command for hauling but did state in its 2023 Sustainability Report published in May 2024 a figure of 630 trucks by end-2023 . However , more recently the global mining equipment giant told IM it was now at 8.3 + billion tonnes hauled and 316 + million kilometres travelled . This includes operations in Australia , Brazil , Canada , Chile , Peru with the USA soon to be added . It includes autonomous trucks hauling commodities like iron ore , copper , oil sands , coal , gold and soon traprock ; and it covers many different truck models – the widest range in the industry covering both electric drive and mechanical drive variants – including the Cat 789D , 789D AWC , 793D , 793F , 793NG , 794AC , 797F , 798 and the Komatsu 930E ( retrofitted using Caterpillar Command for hauling ) plus with the 785 and 793NG coming soon . It is now over 11 years since Caterpillar ’ s AHS became commercially operational .
To take one site as an example , in October 2023 , in its third quarter results , Imperial Oil revealed that it had completed its autonomous haulage program with all 81 of its Caterpillar 363 t class 797F heavy haul trucks at its Kearl oil sands mine in Alberta now fully converted to autonomous operation .
CEO Brad Corson stated : “ With this , we now operate the largest autonomous fleet in our industry and one of the largest autonomous mining fleets in the world , which enables us to capture improvements in truck productivity ,
Autonomous Cat 794AC trucks at Pembroke Resources ' Olive Downs mine , Australia , operated by contractor Thiess
26 International Mining | SEPTEMBER 2024