Rio Tinto has accepted its 300th Komatsu autonomous haulage system – also known as AHS – truck at its Pilbara operations in Western Australia.
Komatsu and Rio Tinto initially signed a memorandum of understanding in 2011 to deploy 150 AHS trucks to the Rio Tinto site, and 13 years later the partnership is still strong with both companies looking to accelerate the pace of mining automation.
“We’ve led the industry in mining automation since 2008, when we commenced the Rio Tinto trial,” Komatsu Australia general manager – mining automation Garry Povah said.
“We delivered the first five AHS trucks to Rio mine sites in Australia in 2011, and it’s incredible to see how much the business has embraced this technology over the years, helping to make their mines safe, and also highly productive.
Povah said AHS trucks are a crucial solution to both mine safety and addressing labour shortages in the sector.
“By removing human operators from potentially hazardous environments, AHS trucks significantly reduce the risk of accident and injury, and while enabling continuous operation that considerably impacts site productivity,” he said.
“The AHS fleet at Rio Tinto sites have completed 8.9 million operating hours and have moved over 4.8 billion tonnes of material – all while improving their sites effective utilisation by 15 per cent – a remarkable feat.”
Currently, the 300 AHS trucks are spread across 10 of Rio Tinto’s Australian mine sites, and contribute to approximately 80 per cent of their daily production capacity.
“This significant milestone is an excellent example of the partnership approach that Rio Tinto takes with its suppliers,” Rio Tinto global head of procurement Jamie Sanders said.
“Komatsu is a fantastic partner that has helped us improve our operations from a health and safety, and efficiency perspective.
“From the initial trial in 2008 to the work we do with Komatsu today, they have played a major role in helping us accelerate the automation of our mining processes. We look forward to continuing our collaboration into the future.”
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