Fortescue Metals Group celebrated an important milestone in the rollout of autonomous haulage at the Chichester Hub with the conversion of the 100th autonomous truck. The full conversion of 108 haul trucks at the Chichester Hub, which comprises the Christmas Creek and Cloudbreak mines, is expected to be completed in September 2020.

Since the introduction of Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) technology at Fortescue in 2012, 168 trucks have been converted across the company’s Solomon and Chichester Hubs. Fortescue’s autonomous haul fleet has moved around 1.4 Gt of material and achieved a greater than 30 percent increase in productivity levels.

Fortescue Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Gaines said in a press release, “Fortescue’s AHS deployment represents the largest fleet conversion to autonomous haulage in the industry.

“Our history of embracing leading edge technology has ensured Fortescue remains at the lowest end of the global cost curve and remains fundamental to driving sustained productivity and efficiency improvements across our business to ensure we continue to deliver enhanced returns for our shareholders and key stakeholders.

“Most importantly, the introduction of AHS technology has improved safety outcomes across our operations and we’re very pleased that the Automated Mining Projects team has also achieved this important milestone in the truck conversion program with zero harm to any team members,” Gaines said.

Workforce skills development has been a key aspect of Fortescue’s automation project, with the company’s training and redeployment program successfully transferring or upskilling team members to new roles across the business.

“Training is at the heart of everything we do at Fortescue and as we continue the integration of autonomous trucks across our sites, this ethos has guided our efforts to ensure no redundancies due to automation and to deliver significant benefits to employees from the opportunities offered by this project,” Gaines said.

Fortescue was the first company in the world to deploy CAT autonomous haulage on a commercial scale at the Solomon Hub and its 168 trucks have travelled more than 47 million km. As part of the Chichester Hub automation project, 549,500 parts have been fitted to date across 100 trucks. Fortescue was the first in the world to retrofit Command for hauling (part of Caterpillar’s MineStar technology) on a CAT 789D and Komatsu 930E haul truck.