Miners are increasingly turning to autonomous technologies to drive greater efficiencies,
boost safety and lower their operating costs. (Photo: Caterpillar)

Interest in autonomous solutions for other mining equipment, including loaders and excavators, drills and dozers is also growing, and the MINExpo 2024 event held in Las Vegas, US, in September saw multiple product launches, updates and partnership announcements from OEMs and miners. The following article summarizes some key developments…

Komatsu Leverages Partnerships to Expand Auto Capabilities
Komatsu and Caterpillar together account for 74% of the autonomous truck brands tracked by GlobalData. The 780 autonomous units that Komatsu alone has deployed globally have today moved more than 10 billion metric tons of material, and 10 Komatsu autonomous trucks have now surpassed 100,000 operating hours, which is an industry first.

Brian Fox, Senior Vice President, Mining Strategy and Innovation, gave more detail in a MINExpo press conference. “Our mining solutions rest on three pillars: automation, sustainability and interoperability,” he told the global mining media. “By integrating these core elements, we can help mines to boost productivity, reliability and safety, while simultaneously minimizing their environmental impact and operational expenses. “To help our customers overcome their complex mining challenges, and especially to enhance safety, our focus on automation provides high-precision equipment that drives consistency and efficiency across the enterprise.”

He added that the pathway to automation will look different for every mine site and is rarely linear. “Every customer’s journey is going to be different as they move from manual to fully autonomous operations,” said Fox. “Our machine solutions are at various levels of maturity, and we’ll continue to listen to customers to help us prioritize development activities in this area.”

Fox explained that Komatsu is leveraging advances in simulation, modelling, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to speed the development of its autonomous solutions. The 2350 wheel loader that was on display at MINExpo featured a next-generation camera and LiDAR system-based object detection and classification technology that was developed jointly with an automotive technology supplier.

“We’re leveraging a lot of different partnerships and acquisitions to impact the industry at a faster pace and meet the needs of customers who are under pressure to perform,” said Fox. “The Frontrunner autonomous haulage system (AHS) offers predictable fleet management; customers can depend upon it for production and to enhance component life on trucks. We’ve seen great improvements in truck tire and brake life with the system as well as overall reductions in maintenance costs. We’re also proud to announce two new additions to our automation portfolio for blasthole drills and intelligent machine controlled (IMC) dozers.”

Komatsu’s automation package now offers non-line-of-site operating capabilities, which allows drill rig and dozer operators to control machines from offsite locations. Teleoperation on the IMC dozers is based on a three-blade control system that allows for precise and reliable remote operation, even in the harshest environments.

“These dozers have already seen commercial success in Brazil and Australia allowing these operations to maintain production remotely without sacrificing any control or efficiency,” Fox added. He noted that the company’s longterm ambition is to offer fully autonomous capabilities for its entire surface load and haul portfolio within the next decade, including rope shovels, hydraulic excavators and front wheel loaders.

The Komatsu MINExpo booth also featured a fully autonomous light vehicle — a Toyota utility truck — developed in partnership with the automotive OEM. Shingo Hori, Executive Officer at Komatsu’s Mining Division, spoke about this. “We know that there are various other pieces of equipment in the mine, including light vehicles, that Komatsu doesn’t produce or supply to its customer base, but which could benefit from autonomous capabilities,” he explained. “The partnership with Toyota is representative of our core philosophy to do interoperability in the safest and most productive manner. We’ve worked with them to provide the signals or commands from our Frontrunner and mine dispatch optimization solutions to Toyota for the control of their vehicles. The result is an autonomous light vehicle, provided by Toyota, operating within a completely orchestrated circuit to ensure that we’re not disrupting the flow of the haul autonomous trucks, while ensuring that all of the safety layers that are provided in the autonomous system are still active.”

He added that this solution is still at the pilot stage, but that multiple light vehicles are currently being run in autonomous mode at Komatsu’s proving ground in Arizona.

Caterpillar Adding New Features to Command for Hauling
Caterpillar continues to invest in the Cat MineStar Command for hauling system, leveraging more than 11 years of operational experience to drive consistency and predictability in haulage operations. MineStar Command manages the autonomous mining ecosystem to increase haulage efficiency through reduced idle time, bunching at the loader, unnecessary empty travel and wasted fuel. Trucks equipped with the system currently operate on three continents and have travelled more than 200 million miles, autonomously moving more than 9.1 billion tons of material. Caterpillar showcased Command’s latest innovations at MINExpo, including capabilities to support battery electric technology and charging solutions. “The mine site of the future will be more complex than ever before as customers look to achieve the same production goals, while balancing new challenges such as energy management,” Denise Johnson, Group President, Caterpillar Resource Industries, said in a press release. “We believe the linkage between automation and electrification will unlock the potential for a complete ecosystem integrating technologies to meet or exceed the demands of today and tomorrow.”

Trucks equipped with Cat Command for Hauling have moved more than 9.5 billion tons of
material autonomously. (Photo: Caterpillar)

Command retrofit kits are available for Cat mining trucks in the 210- to 410- ton size classes, including the Cat 789D, 793D, 793F and 797F, as well as the electric drive 794 AC and high-altitude 798 AC models. Beyond haul trucks, the Cat 789D water truck platform can be equipped with Command for hauling, providing a fully autonomous solution to manage haul road dust. Soon, Caterpillar will expand autonomous haulage to its 153-ton, Cat 785. These models can be equipped with a portion of the autonomous kit from the factory, making them ‘Command-ready’ to reduce installation time in the field.

John Deselem, Director of Product Management, Autonomy, gave some further detail on the latest autonomous features for Cat haul trucks during a MINExpo press event, including automated brake checks for autonomous haul trucks; a feature that was demonstrated on a Cat 794. In terms of safety, a predictive capability has been added to safeguard against interactions with light vehicles. MineStar Command for hauling can now predict when and where the path of a light vehicle might intersect with that of an autonomous haul truck. This ensures that the truck can stop in good time, and the event is automatically captured on video and sent to the supervisor for playback and continuous improvements.

Deselem explained: “We started our autonomous journey in Western Australia in iron-ore operations. Since then, we’ve progressed into oil sands operations in Canada and large metal mines, copper and gold specifically, as well as coal operations in South America and Australia. Each of those mines has posed a different set of applications and challenges and we’ve learned a lot from each one. For example, iron-ore mines typically have wide, flat haul roads through dry, competent material. In contrast, oil sands operations tend to have soft, wet conditions underfoot and very cold weather, so we’ve had to learn to adapt our technology.”

He added: “Another product we’ve applied our autonomy technology to as an industry first, is our autonomous water cart. The autonomous truck features a smart watering system that applies the exact amount of water needed in each area of the haul road. The system monitors road conditions and evaporation rates to ensure that it’s not overwatering. That system is also available for staffed trucks too.”

In November 2024, Caterpillar reinforced that it’s scaling MineStar Command for hauling into quarry applications, demonstrated by the company’s collaboration with Luck Stone to deploy Command for hauling at its Bull Run Plant in Chantilly, Virginia, US. This is Caterpillar’s first autonomous deployment — technology, process and people — in the aggregates industry and will expand the company’s autonomous truck fleet to include the 100-ton-class Cat 777.

Johnson explained: “Instead of automating more than 100 trucks on a mine site that operates 24/7, we’re automating four trucks in a quarry that work 10 hours a day, so it’s not just about the technology; it’s about how to transform our technology and processes to manage a smaller operation, so it makes money for the customer and does it safely. This can be a foundation for how we as a company move forward into autonomy in other industries.”

The current fleet of Caterpillar’s autonomous trucks with Command for hauling moves more tons per year worldwide than the total annual US crushed stone production industry. For two years, Caterpillar has been embedded with Luck Stone to build expertise in quarry operations, aiming to develop a system that is scalable and economically viable for customers across the quarry industry while also helping them to achieve a step change in safety and productivity.

It said that the demonstration lays the foundation for ongoing testing and validation of assumptions and technology before making autonomous technology commercially available in the aggregates industry.

Fortescue and Liebherr Advance AHS
During an event held at MINExpo, Liebherr and Australian miner, Fortescue, announced an expansion of their long-standing partnership which covers autonomy and electrification. The companies have been collaborating since 2022. Their initial cooperation covered the supply of 120 zero-emission haul trucks, and the newly expanded agreement announced on September 25th covers 475 new Liebherr machines (approximately 360 autonomous battery-electric trucks, 55 electric excavators and 60 battery-powered dozers) equipped with a battery power system, developed by Fortescue Zero, and a jointly developed autonomous haulage system (AHS), both of which are scalable and can be retrofitted onto existing Liebherr haul trucks.

The AHS, which was co-developed using both companies’ expertise, also includes an Energy Management System that coordinates the static recharge assignments for the trucks and ensures the charger is fully utilized without causing queuing on site. “We wanted to design and build an intelligent, state-of-the-art AHS that not only includes the know-how from both an OEM and a mining operator generated over the last few years but will also be able to integrate with new zero-emission solutions in the future,” said Oliver Weiss, Executive Vice President, R&D, Engineering and Production at Liebherr-Mining Equipment SAS. “Therefore, control and command of zero-emission mining technologies were included in the AHS from the outset. The fleet management assignment engine at the core of the AHS monitors fleet energy levels so that jobs and energy replenishment tasks can be assigned efficiently within zero-emission fleets equipped with this system.”

Fortescue has also developed a stationary fast charging solution to support the autonomous battery-electric trucks. Equipped with robotic connection options, the charger can provide up to 6 MW of power and charge the current battery- electric T264 in 30 minutes. The approximately 360-strong T 264 truck fleet has already begun arriving at Fortescue’s Western Australian operations, with the first trucks delivered to the Eliwana mine in October 2023. Four autonomous trucks are in validation at Fortescue’s testing site, with the first deployment of operational autonomous trucks expected in Q1 2025. All T264 trucks are arriving autonomy-ready and will be progressively deployed across Fortescue’s sites. Validation of the fully autonomous battery-electric solution is expected to be complete in early 2026. E&MJ spoke to Fortescue Metals CEO, Dino Otranto, about the historic partnership and how automation and electrification will support the miner’s ‘real zero’ ambitions. (Unlike net zero, which relies on measures like carbon offsets to reduce emissions on paper, real zero means replacing all fossil fuels with green energy.)

“We saw the opportunity to accelerate our transition to green operations by 2030 and that required thinking differently and creating the technology that didn’t exist,” Otranto said. “Partnering with OEMs directly has allowed us to develop tailored solutions faster and at a level of collaboration that’s unprecedented in the industry. If we’re going to achieve real zero emissions, we can’t rely on the traditional, piecemeal approach.”

Do you see electrification and automation as going hand-in-hand on the path to real zero mining? E&MJ asked. “They’re absolutely linked,” he replied. “For example, through Fortescue’s Fortex solution, we’re integrating autonomous haulage, fleet management, collision avoidance and energy management to create optimized, autonomous, electric mining sites. Where the traditional OEM approach locks mines into a closed system, through Fortex we want to offer an open architecture platform that allows companies to share data and interface with other applications within the ecosystem.” He added that autonomous haulage is key to Fortescue’s efficiency and energy goals. “It allows us to optimize energy use across individual trucks and the whole fleet to ensure no power is wasted,” Otranto explained. “With automation, safety is also significantly improved which has always been, and will continue to be, an absolute priority for Fortescue. Our autonomous technology has increased productivity in our fleets by up to 30%, and it gives us valuable data to continually refine operations — like optimizing haul road design and scheduling maintenance. “Today, we operate one of the world’s largest autonomous fleets with over 200 trucks monitored remotely from 2,000- km away. We’ve mastered autonomy and now we’re integrating these skills into zero- emission fleet management, collision avoidance and decarbonization efforts to further enhance performance.”

While Fortescue’s initial focus with these technologies is mining, the company also sees significant opportunities to expand into other sectors. “On the software side, we’re offering breakthroughs in areas like zero emission-ready AHS and fleet management integration,” Otranto told E&MJ. “Fortescue is focused on delivering on our decarbonization goals and commercializing our technology first in the mining sector and then across heavy industry, including construction, shipping and even locomotives, where decarbonization is also critical.”

Liebherr Showcases IoMine
Liebherr also showcased its IoMine updated and expanded technology portfolio for integrated operations at MINExpo. This offers new command and control capabilities, data integration and remote support services, all of which allow customers to use the integrated operations approach to their advantage. The IoMine Operate product family is designed to optimize and streamline daily mining operations by collecting, analyzing and leveraging data from connected machines to efficiently manage fleet activities, monitor performance and improve decision-making in real time. Key products within the Operate family are the Fleet Management and Machine Guidance Systems, the Data Services range and assistance systems for Liebherr’s excavator fleet that provide operators with additional operational information.

The Fleet Management System (FMS) integrates mining operations to boost productivity, optimize haulage assignments and maximize fleet utilization — all of which help to reduce non-productive time across the entire load-haul-dump value chain. The FMS is also OEM-agnostic and delivers real-time, end-to-end monitoring for all connected assets to offer a strategic overview of onsite activities. Its integrated optimization engine eliminates uncertainty and variations, enabling automated reassignment and communication that keeps mining operations running smoothly and onsite personnel informed. The Machine Guidance System (MGS) can be integrated with the FMS or AHS and will be offered as a standalone product. It delivers critical material information to minimize ore variability and dilution, improving overall performance. Designed for flexibility, the MGS can be installed on multiple brands of loading and pushing machines and offers high-precision accuracy as well as real-time material tracking.

IoMine’s Automate product family offers customers both fully and semi-autonomous solutions for their fleets. The new AHS falls within this product family alongside Liebherr’s teleoperation system for its range of Generation 8 mining dozers, LiReCon. Liebherr has also expanded its comprehensive range of semi-autonomous assistance systems for its excavators and dozers.

The AHS combines advanced automation with real-time data insights to enhance mine productivity, safety and efficiency. The system enables fully autonomous operation of Liebherr’s haul trucks, allowing for intelligent route optimization and seamless, reliable performance without manual intervention. Designed for future sustainability, the AHS is compatible with both diesel-electric and zero emission energy systems, integrating with the FMS to manage energy replenishment for zero-emission trucks.

Liebherr Remote Control, more commonly known as LiReCon, is also a feature within the Automate product family. This teleoperations system allows operators to control Liebherr’s Generation 8 dozers from a safe distance outside the pit, reducing their exposure to potential hazards on site — particularly when a dozer is working in especially challenging conditions. The latest update to LiReCon, which was also released at MINExpo, makes the teleoperation stand more compact and easier to transport. This means LiReCon can now be more easily integrated into a range of site infrastructure, including construction containers, mobile deployment vehicles and office applications.

Scania’s Autonomous Road Train
The theme for Scania’s MINExpo 2024 exhibit was ‘think big, act small.’ The Swedish manufacturer showcased its electric and autonomous truck solutions. The center piece of the booth was a fully autonomous R 620 10x4 tipper truck which the company said is perfect “for agile mining and right-sizing” offering “a lower cost per transported tonne compared to other alternatives.” Scania is now taking orders for this autonomous truck which will be delivered in late 2026.

Scania is now taking orders for its fully autonomous R 620 10x4 tipper truck to be delivered in 2026. (Image: Scania)

At the show, Scania and Fortescue also announced their intention to jointly develop and validate a fully integrated autonomous road train solution. Scania Australia has been working closely with Fortescue for many years, and the companies said they’re pleased to see this joint development project become a reality. The solution will be developed, tested and validated at Fortescue’s iron-ore operations in Christmas Creek, Western Australia. Manfred Streit, Managing Director at Scania Australia, said: “By utilizing Scania’s extensive knowledge in supplying trucks to the mining industry and our expertise in autonomous driving, the Road Train solution will reduce the overall mining footprint.”

The autonomous solution, which is designed to help Fortescue unlock highgrade satellite deposits, will be integrated with its FMS to optimize fleet utilization and maximize productivity, while ensuring efficient fuel and energy consumption to reduce carbon emissions. The solution will also integrate Scania’s onboard automation hardware and technology for the Scania R770 prime mover platform, coupled with three trailers weighing 120-t with a payload of 240-t.

Hexagon Acquires indurad In November 2024, Hexagon announced the acquisition of Germany-based indurad, a global leader in radar and real- time location systems (RTLS) technologies, along with its autonomous haulage subsidiary, xtonomy. indurad’s technologies deliver precise object location tracking, collision avoidance and machine automation capabilities. Key benefits of the acquisition are expected to include enhanced mine safety, as indurad’s advanced radar-based collision avoidance systems mitigate risks in highstakes mining environments; increased productivity, enabled through real-time ore tracking and measurement help automate mine workflows, reducing downtime and inefficiencies; and future-ready autonomy as indurad’s mobile machine automation expertise and OEM-agnostic autonomy platform combined with Hexagon’s existing technologies can accelerate the shift to fully autonomous mines.

Norbert Hanke, Interim President and CEO of Hexagon, said: “This acquisition represents another step towards realizing our vision of fully connected and integrated mine workflows. indurad’s radar technology aligns perfectly with our focus on safety and autonomy, and we are excited to integrate their capabilities into our portfolio to unlock its full potential.”