Epiroc CEO Helena Hedblom says Western Australia iron ore producer Hancock Iron Ore “is at the absolute forefront of mining automation” after converting all 78 large mining haul trucks in its Roy Hill fleet from manual to fully driverless.
“It’s very exciting to see the major progress done on this ground-breaking project, which represents a major step forward for autonomous mining globally,” Hedblom said.
Hancock uses Epiroc’s LinkOA traffic management and on-board automation systems to navigate the Roy Hill mine’s virtual map, communicating with ancillary vehicles and the company’s remote operations centre (ROC) about 1100km away in Perth, the capital city of WA. Epiroc said more than 250 million tonnes of material had been moved autonomously using LinkOA and the trucks had safely travelled about 6 million kilometres.
“LinkOA is interoperable and scalable regardless of manufacturer – so-called original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agnostic,” Epiroc said.
“With most of the 78 converted trucks already operating autonomously, the final phase – bringing all the trucks and ancillary vehicles online – is on track for completion by December 2025, marking the full realisation of the world’s largest OEM-agnostic autonomous haulage operation.”
When Epiroc won its “biggest ever” mine fleet automation order in 2023 it said the contract involved conversion of a fleet of 96 haul trucks from manual to driverless.
The Stockholm-listed company said its recognised about SEK300 million (US$32 million) of revenue from the project in the September quarter this year.
