Driverless mining trucks collide

A crash involving two autonomous dump trucks has been reported by Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group.

Fortescue chief executive Elizabeth Gaines says a full investigation into the incident is underway at the Pilbara Christmas Creek iron ore mine.

The February 11 crash involved one driverless truck making contact with another autonomous truck at “slow speed”.

“Safety is Fortescue’s highest priority and our autonomous haulage system has improved the safety and productivity of our operations.

“No manned vehicles or people were involved and no team members were injured or were at risk of being injured. This was not the result of any failure of the autonomous system.

“Since the introduction of the first AHS truck at Solomon in 2012, AHS trucks have safely travelled over 24.7 million kilometres,” Gaines says.

The company has contracted mining service provider Theiss to start converting 65 conventional haul trucks into autonomous haul trucks for its Christmas Creek mine.

Fortescue is also converting around 100 trucks for its Chichester Hub mine in Western Australia in an effort to become the first iron ore mine in the world with a fully autonomous fleet.