{"id":1191705,"date":"2020-06-23T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-23T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1027738"},"modified":"2020-06-23T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-23T13:30:00","slug":"fortescue-metals-hits-automation-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1191705","title":{"rendered":"Fortescue Metals hits automation milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian iron ore major Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG) has hit a milestone<\/a> in the rollout of autonomous haulage systems (AHS) at its Western Australia operations, with the conversion of its 100th driverless truck.<\/p>\n

Transforming the company\u2019s 108 haul trucks at the Chichester Hub, which includes the Christmas Creek and Cloudbreak mines, is expected to be completed in September 2020, the company said.<\/p>\n

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Since 2012, the miner\u2019s autonomous haul fleet has moved roughly 1.4 billion tonnes of material. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Since introducing AHS technology in 2012, Fortescue has converted 168 trucks across its Solomon and Chichester Hubs.<\/p>\n

The miner\u2019s autonomous haul fleet has moved roughly 1.4 billion tonnes of material and achieved a greater than 30% increase in productivity levels, when compared with traditional driver-operated fleets, it said.<\/p>\n

The rapid truck conversion put Fortescue on track to becoming the first iron ore producer to have a fully autonomous haulage operation this year.<\/p>\n

Workforce skills development has been a key aspect of Fortescue\u2019s automation project, chief executive Elizabeth Gaines said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost importantly, the introduction of AHS technology has improved safety outcomes across our operations,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

Last year, however, one of its massive driverless trucks collided with another one<\/a> at the Christmas Creek iron ore mine. There were no injuries.<\/p>\n

Pioneer<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Fortescue, the world\u2019s No. 4 iron ore producer, has been trailblazer in automation. It was the first miner in the world to deploy Caterpillar autonomous haulage on a commercial scale at the Solomon Hub<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It was also the first in the world to add Command for Hauling (part of CAT\u2019s MineStar technology) on a CAT 789D and Komatsu 930E trucks.<\/p>\n

The news comes as covid-19 is changing the way technology projects in mining are executed. For many, the pandemic seems to be accelerating the industry\u2019s digital transformation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The iron ore major has converted its 100th truck into an autonomous one at its Western Australia operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2648,624,369,4,2857],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1191705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1191736,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191705\/revisions\/1191736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1191705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1191705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1191705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}