Source: The Mining Weekly                     Date: 15 June, 2011

Rio Tinto will double its fleet of driverless haul trucks at its iron-ore operations in Western Australia, following a two-year trial of the autonomous haulage system (AHS) technology that performed above expectations. The trucks, which previously only dumped waste product, will now dump ore for the first time.

“It will be the first operational deployment of this technology in Australia, or anywhere on this scale. The trucks will be used for all haulage requirements, moving high-grade, low-grade and waste material from multiple loading units,” said a Rio Tinto official. The AHS technology has demonstrated its value to the business, especially in the areas of health, safety and productivity, he said.

The AHS trucks use pre-defined courses and navigate autonomously from loading units to dump locations, including waste dumps, stockpiles and crushers. The main navigation system is GPS, combined with a secondary navigation process. They are expected to be fully deployed by April next year. The deployment of the driverless truck fleet forms part of Rio Tinto’s the Mine of the FutureTM program, which was launched in 2008.