‘Concept’ mining machines and futuristic renderings have popped up on different platforms regularly over the past 30 years. Hardly any have progressed. A Perth-based start-up is ready to put its first robot into the field about 12 months after it appeared as a drawing in a somewhat makeshift office.
Todd Peate and David Crosbie, two experienced mining leaders who spent time together in senior executive roles at Orica, have bold plans to rapidly expand the population of Jevons Robotics units performing vital ancillary and in some cases hazardous tasks at mine sites over the next 12-to-24 months. There is sizeable latent demand for “autonomy-as-a-service” in mining in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, and in other parts of Australia and the rest of the world, says Peate.
