Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified major BHP on Thursday announced that it would move its $3.6-billion South Flank mine, in the Pilbara, to autonomous haulage.
The miner said that autonomous haulage would be phased in across five autonomous operation zones (AOZs), beginning in June 2022, and by September 2023, the entire fleet of 41 Komatsu 930e haul trucks at South Flank would have been converted for autonomous operation, along with about 180 other pieces of equipment that support mining operations including excavators, dozers, front-end loaders, water trucks and site vehicles.
The introduction of autonomous haulage is expected to deliver far-reaching safety, production and equipment utilisation and reliability benefits, and new skills and opportunities for the mining and maintenance teams.
The introduction of autonomous haulage will also open up a new set of career options within BHP, with up to 60 specialist roles being created to ensure the pits are able to run autonomously, and the machines are kept operational. These roles include autonomous haulage system controllers, field officers and service technicians.
No job losses are anticipated with the introduction of the autonomous hauling fleet, BHP said.