News

Article by Brad Thompson courtesy of Australian Financial Review.

Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill says it is well on the road to becoming the world’s biggest autonomous mine as its entire trucking fleet moves to driverless operation.

The iron ore mine that has helped propel the Hancock Prospecting executive chairman to top spot on The Australian Financial Review Rich List will convert its mixed fleet of 96 conventional haul trucks to driverless operation from March.

The move comes three years after Mrs Rinehart and the Roy Hill board opted to make a big move into automation in partnership with global mining equipment and solutions provider Epiroc and automation specialist ASI Mining.

The partnership has led to what is claimed as a world-first autonomous haul truck solution that is interoperable and scalable, regardless of truck manufacturer.

Roy Hill, which shipped a company record 60 million tonnes of iron ore in 2021-22, said some converted haul trucks were running around the clock in a dedicated autonomous operating zone and interacting safely with two excavators and numerous ancillary vehicles at intersections, waste dumps and load areas.

The autonomous fleet will eventually comprise 54 Caterpillar 793F trucks, 24 Hitachi EH5000s and 18 Hitachi EH4000s. In addition, more than 200 modified ancillary vehicles will interact with the autonomous haul trucks.

ASI chief executive Mel Torrie said the Roy Hill success signalled to the rest of the mining industry that the technology had reached a level where it could be sold to the broader market.

Roy Hill chief executive Gerhard Veldsman said the miner would offer re-skilling programs and new roles to its truck drivers.

“Today you may be a truckie, tomorrow you might be an apprentice or ship loader operator, as we continue to build the best mining company in Australia,” he said.

“As we grow and expand our operations over the next few years, we are going to need lots of people and different skill sets to run our operations.

“This is an example of Roy Hill using innovative solutions to meet the challenges of an extremely tight labour market, while supporting our people with retraining and helping them transition into other critical roles of the business.”