PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified major Rio Tinto will progressively expand the use of its AutoHaul system this year, with full implementation to be achieved by the end of 2018, Rio iron-ore-division planning, integration and assets MD Kellie Parker says.

Once fully operational, AutoHaul will be the world’s first fully autonomous heavy-haul, long-distance railway system.

Parker said on Wednesday that, in 2016, on average, each of Rio’s autonomous haul trucks at its Pilbara iron-ore operations operated an additional 1 000 hours and at 15% lower cost than conventional haul trucks.

“Working in an autonomous pit is all about improvements. Not only is safety improved, but the AutoHaul system enables accurate reporting of near miss information and has rich information for incident investigations, which enables continuous improvement and releases leadership time to manage the operation.

“We are also seeing improvements in maintenance from a reduction in property damage events and an ability to move to more condition-based maintenance for the trucks,” Parker said.

“We are continuing to make very good progress with the automation of our trains. This will deliver a step change in the safety controls and productivity of rail operations. We are already seeing the AutoHaul system deliver improvements to average train speeds,” Parker added.

Meanwhile, autonomous drills at West Angelas operated for an average 1 000 more hours per drill compared with conventional drills, and autonomous drills are now being deployed at Yandicoogina, with Parker saying that Rio had completed three-million metres with the autonomous drills.

She noted that, as automated systems became more common across mining and other industries, this would create different jobs such as specialists in computing systems and diagnosis but also field technicians to monitor and replace the communications systems.

“We will also need to upskill our maintenance people to service and maintain this new technology,” she said.

Parker said Rio’s ongoing investment in innovation and technology was assisting the company in delivering "superior performance", pointing out that the mining major had reduced its Pilbara cash unit costs to $13.70/t during 2016, with the iron-ore business delivering cumulative savings of $1.4-billion when compared with the 2012 base.