Caterpillar surpasses 5 billion t of material autonomously hauled
Published by Will Owen,
Editor
Global Mining Review,
Roughly nine months after reaching the 4 billion t autonomously hauled milestone, trucks equipped with Cat® MineStar™ Command for hauling have now moved over 5 billion t.
Cat autonomous trucks are on pace to eclipse previous record totals of materials hauled in a calendar year, projected to be more than 1.4 billion t in 2022.
Currently, more than 550 mining trucks are equipped with Command for hauling, operating across three continents. Over the last nine years, trucks equipped with Command for hauling have journeyed nearly the average distance between the Earth and Mars with zero loss-time injuries.
“In 2013, we placed our first fleets of autonomous trucks in Western Australia at FMG Solomon and BHP Jimblebar. Since that time, trucks using Command for hauling have safely travelled nearly 200 million km, more than twice the experience in autonomous operations of any automobile manufacturer,” comments Denise Johnson, group president of Caterpillar Resource Industries. “Caterpillar has grown the number of autonomous trucks in operation by 40% in the past two years. We believe that automation is one of many keys to implement technology that unlocks the value miners need when it comes to the energy transition toward more sustainable operations.”
Marc Cameron, vice president of Caterpillar Resource Industries, adds: “The new Cat 798 AC electric drive trucks replacing BHP’s entire haul truck fleet at the Escondida mine will feature technologies that advance the site’s key initiatives, including autonomy and decarbonisation. The agreement allows Escondida | BHP to accelerate the implementation of its autonomy plans by transitioning the fleet with autonomous haulage system (AHS) technology.”
Caterpillar has enabled 13 customers at 23 different locations to succeed with full site autonomous haulage solutions. Starting with iron ore at Solomon and Jimblebar, the company’s solutions now manage oil sands, copper, gold, coal, lithium, and phosphate.
Spanning the 190 to 370 t class sizes, the Cat 789D, 793D, 793F, 797F, and electric drive 794 AC and 798 AC mining trucks are capable of fully autonomous operation. Retrofit kits allow miners to expand Command for hauling to existing Cat mining trucks.
Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/23092022/caterpillar-surpasses-5-billion-t-of-material-autonomously-hauled/
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