MINING TRUCKS
The latest autonomy news as IM went to press was that the first commissioned trucks are now operating autonomously at Newmont ' s Boddington gold mine in Western Australia , part of a fleet of 29 new autonomous Cat 793Fs being supplied by WesTrac plus conversion of a further seven
Haulage heats up
Paul Moore homes in on the core mining truck issues – autonomy and future powertrains , plus gives examples on developments from mines and OEMs around the world
There are several key trends and issues in the mining trucks market today . First is what to do about the powertrain in terms of using diesel going forward . Of course the Tier 4 Final and Stage V engines that are available today have already reduced emissions hugely and in the medium term the main environmental benefits will be had in operators in the major mining regions switching to these engine variants . Most of them still aren ’ t using these engines yet as they aren ’ t mandated in those countries . But at the end of the day this still means using vast quantities of diesel . Other mines are looking to LNG as a medium term option and a number of trials and tests are underway from Ghana to Russia . Then there are the other options – trolley assist is one – and having been seen as an Africa-centric , and even dated option with too much initial capex , it is now again on the cards for many miners – why ? Because the future technologies , namely full hybrid trucks using hydrogen fuel cells and batteries ( FCEV ) and full battery mining trucks , are not quite there yet , though there is a lot of activity . But essentially the industry is hedging its bets – looking to get these in place for 2030 / 2035 emissions targets but in the interim looking at wins from the mentioned medium term options .
Of course , autonomy is another major focus area and one which has moved well beyond the Pilbara early adopters . Most of the big mines in other parts of the world are now looking at it . Taking Chile and Peru alone – Minera Centinela , Collahuasi , Antamina , Las Bambas , Codelco and Cuajone amongst others are trialling or looking at trialling AHS fleets . In Canada , another growing market , Imperial Oil is making major progress at Kearl while Suncor continues its AHS rollout and is taking control of nearby Syncrude where autonomous haulage is also likely to be applied . Teck is fast ramping up its autonomous fleet at Highland Valley Copper to 35 out of a total fleet of 52 by end 2021 , with the trial at Elkview completing this year .
Autonomy is also trickling down from the ultra class trucks to smaller truck classes and ancillary trucks . Rio Tinto announced recently that it is working with Caterpillar on the world ’ s first autonomous water trucks , to be launched in 2021 at the new Gudai-Darri iron ore mine . Several projects are underway for automation of ADTs – for example indurad has applied its state of the art radar tech to a Bell ADT at a voestalpine-owned mining operation in Austria . The truck no longer relies at all on optical perception sensors .
But it isn ’ t just about autonomy itself – the nature of the autonomy is changing as well in that the AHS technology is evolving to take advantage in particular of what AI can bring in terms of making autonomous mining trucks more flexible to deal with their surroundings eg other vehicles and obstacles – so it becomes less about predetermined routes and controllers telling the trucks what to do – to the trucks reacting themselves in a similar way to the technology that is being applied in autonomous road cars . This means more advanced algorithms dynamically controlling the sensors – and the sensors themselves , notably LiDAR and radar , getting more advanced . This also means the market is no longer just about the big truck OEMs – some innovators like ASI Mining have
been around for some time but other companies like SafeAI , Oxbotica , indurad , Navtech , Baraja are getting involved … and the list goes on . This has also meant that the OEMs and the FMS technology majors , some of whom they control , are in turn increasingly partnering with these companies to ensure they stay ahead of the curve . There remain issues with autonomy being truly “ open ” but this is now being worked through as the mining customers don ’ t want to be handcuffed to one AHS and one type of FMS .
Beyond this there is also work being done on making the autonomous trucks also react to the road conditions , their own maintenance health , and the market itself – where they could actually regulate their speed and fuel consumption as the daily mine plan changes based on prevailing ore or metal prices – in effect having a high production and economy mode . The autonomous trucks would also be more in tune with their condition – so they will run at the optimum level based on onboard real time analytics of tyre condition , machine health etc using the advanced analytics technology that is already available . China ’ s TAGE Idriver says it is working on such as system which it calls Unmanned Valley™ and is currently running simulations but the plan is to roll it out at a minesite as soon as possible .
The OEM option
The OEMs are being driven somewhat by customers on the one hand and what is
In recent months , Hitachi Construction Machinery in a move to enhance evolution of its AHS technology has made a major investment in Baraja which is accelerating development of its Spectrum – Scan™ LiDAR which can instantly adjust and adapt scanning resolution to the changing environment , similar to how humans can control their visual focus . Separately Hitachi has also signed an MoU with ABB to share their expertise and collaborate in bringing solutions to market that will reduce the greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions associated with heavy machinery in mining
International Mining | MAY 2021