Fortescue has inked a new deal with Liebherr to develop an autonomous system capable of controlling the miner’s zero emissions iron ore haulage fleet.
Fortescue has inked a new deal with German-Swiss manufacturer Liebherr to develop an autonomous system capable of controlling the miner’s zero emissions iron ore haulage fleet.
The new system would be designed to coordinate dump trucks, locomotives, water carts, light vehicles, loaders, and drills running remotely on hydrogen fuel cell or battery electric technology.
Fortescue chief executive Dino Otranto said the technology would put the miner in control of its ambition to reach real zero emissions by 2030.
“Our deep expertise in autonomous haulage, that has come from operating over 200 diesel autonomous haul trucks across our mine sites, has enabled Fortescue and Liebherr to develop a fleet management system that uniquely targets efficiency and unlocks untapped capacity in our fleet,” he said.
“The partnership with Liebherr has enabled us to jointly develop the fleet management systems, which provide us with an OEM agnostic solution that can be integrated with any autonomous platform including trucks, drills, watercarts or any other heavy mining equipment.”
The new system will integrate fleet management, an autonomy kit for haul trucks, and guidance system for loaders.
Liebherr Mining engineering and production research and development executive vice president Oliver Weiss said the work would benefit the entire mining industry.
“Liebherr has always prioritised market-led product development and we are privileged to be partnering with Fortescue to collectively develop and deploy this autonomous haulage solution,” he said.
Fortescue and Liebherr have been working since 2022 on zero-emissions haulage.
In May this year Rio Tinto and BHP partnered with Caterpillar and Komatsu to trial battery-electric haul trucks at their Pilbara mines.
