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Fortescue deploys more robot trucks

By Allie Coyne on Apr 5, 2017 10:13AM

Fortescue deploys more robot trucks
Big cost, productivity gains.
Fortescue Metals Group has expanded its fleet of autonomous trucks at its Solomon Hub mines after finding they significantly cut costs and boosted productivity compared to its manned vehicles.

The miner introduced Caterpillar autonomous trucks - provided by Seven Group Holdings subsidiary WesTrac - in 2012.

Last August Fortescue said the autonomous haulage system it had introduced at the Firetail and Kings Valley iron ore mines had moved over 200 million tonnes of material since 2012.

It said the autonomous approach had resulted in a 20 percent improvement in productivity over its traditional manned fleet.

The miner has steadily grown its fleet of Caterpillar autonomous trucks since the project's inception after overcoming some early hiccups like vehicles stopping for puffs of dirt in the road.

The total number of trucks to be delivered under the original contract was 45, but Fortescue has soared past that number after finding better-than-expected benefits from the autonomous approach.

At December it was operating 54 robot trucks at Solomon, and today the head of technology and innovation for WesTrac parent Seven Group Holdings James Scott revealed 62 vehicles were currently in operation.

Speaking at the AWS Summit in Sydney, he also shed some further light on the gains Fortescue was seeing from the vehicles.

Scott said productivity had increased by 27 percent over the traditional manned fleet, and Fortescue's pit to port costs had fallen by 43 percent.

WesTrac has 62 autonomous trucks with Fortescue and 80 in the broader Pilbara region.

Its MineStar autonomous haulage system has so far been available only on its Cat 793F CMD trucks, but in January WesTrac revealed plans to expand its platform to more models as well as trucks made by other manufactuers.

It said it would adapt its technology to be able to be retrofitted to a Komatsu 930E mining truck, while equipping more of its own models - like its largest truck, the 797F - with the autonomous technology.

DYOR.

Frank.