Rio Tinto robot mine on trial in the Pilbara
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Sunday, May 31, 2009
RIO Tinto has taken the next step towards the world's first fully autonomous commercial mine.
Rio Tinto has launched a 15-month trial that it hopes will eventually transform its vast Pilbara iron ore operations.
The mining giant believes technicians and engineers monitoring the whole process from a remote operations centre in Perth, 1500km away, will eventually control the "mine of the future", according to Rio chief executive Tom Albanese.
"This is all about Rio Tinto having safe, efficient production, meeting ever increasing tonnes that our customers require," he said.
Mr Albanese said autonomous equipment would allow for more accurate and efficient mining and reduce wear and tear on trucks and other vehicles.
He guaranteed there would be no job losses but said it would help deal with the problems of sending people long distances to remote mine sites.
"As we continue to expand in the Pilbara we can do so without having large issues about how to get more and more people into remote locations and the costs to bring them there."
Over the 15 months, Rio Tinto aims to haul 31 million tonnes of ore. Five autonomous 930E Komatsu trucks, developed with the Japanese manufacturer, can carry 290 tonnes of material.
Using GPS, they know their location at all times and can navigate from the load area to the dumping area, while avoiding any oncoming vehicles.
The project planning for the trucks began in June last year and the first driverless truck was loaded in late December. Full 24-hour production began last month.
Rio's blasthole drill can run to a pre-programmed pattern or be remotely controlled by an operator handling several drills simultaneously.
Next month, Rio will take delivery of smart charging trucks which will load the individual explosive charges.