Milestone for world’s largest OEM-agnostic autonomous mine

Hancock Iron Ore’s autonomous haul trucks are using Epiroc’s LinkOA traffic management and on-board automation systems. Image: Epiroc

The conversions have been done by using Epiroc’s LinkOA system and are said to be a major milestone on the journey toward creating the world’s largest fully agnostic autonomous mine.

Of the 78 haul trucks that have been converted, 60 are allocated to autonomous operation. The next step is to deploy the remaining trucks and finalise the mine’s ancillary vehicles’ communications capability.

Epiroc says that LinkOA is interoperable and scalable regardless of manufacturer. Ultimately, the mine’s autonomous fleet will comprise 54 Caterpillar 793F trucks and 24 Hitachi EH5000 trucks.

“Hancock Iron Ore is at the absolute forefront of mining automation, and we are happy to play a key role in their success,” says Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s President and CEO.

“It’s very exciting to see the major progress done on this ground-breaking project, which represents a major step forward for autonomous mining globally.”

Hancock Iron Ore’s autonomous haul trucks are using Epiroc’s LinkOA traffic management and on-board automation systems to navigate the Roy Hill mine’s virtual map, communicating with ancillary vehicles and the Remote Operations Centre located some 1,100 km away in Perth.

More than 250 million tonnes of material have been moved autonomously using LinkOA and the trucks have safely travelled approximately 6 million km. 

With most of the 78 converted trucks already operating autonomously, the final phase – bringing all the trucks and ancillary vehicles online – is on track for completion by December 2025, marking the full realisation of what would be the world’s largest OEM-agnostic autonomous haulage operation.