Interestingly, Roy Hill has also announced
that it wants to bring in autonomous haulage
and autonomous blast hole drilling.
By taking the autonomous path, Roy Hill
followsinthefootstepsofitslargerironore
mining peers Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue
Metals Group, all of which have autonomous
drills and trucks.
Speaking on the sidelines of the
International Mining and Resources
Conference in Melbourne, Roy Hill CEO
Barry Fitzgerald said the company had
commissioned its third autonomous drill and
would have the remaining six commissioned
by the end of the year.
Fitzgerald said the autonomous drill
technology had come from a non-original
equipment maker source.
On the truck front it looks like Roy Hill
will go with the Caterpillar autonomous
solution.
he mine started of using Caterpillar
793F trucks as its main haulage option.
OneofthebeneitsoftheCaterpillar
Minestar autonomous haulage solution is
thatitcanberetroittedtoexistingtrucks
- something competitor Komatsu does not
ofer at this stage.
However, complicating things is the fact
that Roy Hill recently ordered 24 Hitachi
EH5000 trucks.
Caterpillar can also retroit its Minestar
system to other OEM’s trucks, something it
is doing at FMG where it will be converting
Komatsu 930E trucks to autonomous
operation.
Fitzgerald hinted the Caterpillar trucks
in Roy Hill’s 90-strong truck leet would
probably be converted irst.
“Weareirmlyoftheviewthat
autonomous trucks are the way of the future,
which is clearly a major industry trend,”
he said.
“Atthispointintimeweareworking
towards starting the phased-implementation
properlyinthesecondhalfofnextyear.
“Clearly the implementation model of
that is being driven by resources and as we
developthepitsweneedtodoitpitbypit
by pit.
“WehaveCaterpillartrucksandwealso
have Hitachi trucks, which are starting to be
delivered.
“We are open minded about what our
autonomous solution is.
“We’ve actually gone for a non-OEM
solution on the autonomous drills so clearly
we will go to what is most appropriate for us
andwhatisthemostcost-efective.
“Obviously there’s a lot of viable providers
of that technology and we need to work out
what’s best for us.
“Clearly we do have Caterpillar trucks and
I think those trucks are probably the ones
that will go irst.”
Fitzgerald admitted the introduction
of autonomous haulage would have some
impact on staing and may lead some people
to leave the company.
“People do need to achieve their potential
andIthinkyou’llseetherewillbesome
people that will be reskilled and retrained,
some people may choose not to stay with us
because they like driving trucks, and so we
will continue to train and develop people
andweexpecttoredeploy,”hesaid.
Fitzgerald said there may be a reduction in
people long-term.IfRoyHilldoesopttogowithCaterpillar,
thatwillbeafurthershakeuptothe
autonomous haulage hierarchy in the
Australian mining market.
For years Komatsu ruled it, however,
Caterpillar has taken the lead in terms of
machines in the ield.
Its approach of retroitting is likely to win
itmorecustomersasmoreminerslookto
add automation to their operations.
AnotheremergingplayerintheAustralian
mining automation market is Flanders
Electric.
Its Ardvarc autonomous drill technology
has been itted to blast hole rigs at both FMG
and Roy Hill’s operations.
AccordingtoRoyHillallofits
autonomous drill rigs run the Ardvarc
system while FMG runs a combination of
Atlas Copco and Ardvarc autonomous drill
technologies.
he Ardvarc system has been around for
several years.
It is a fully autonomous multi-pass drill rig
controlsystemthatalsofeaturesautonomous
angle drilling capability.http://www.miningmonthly.com December 2017 AMM 11
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An autonomous
Atlas Copco PV
blast hole drill.