Caterpillar Inc has introduced a renewed settlement with Chichester Metals Ltd and FMG Solomon Pty Ltd (collectively, Fortescue’s working entities) to proceed the provision and operation of Cat® MineStar™ Command for hauling throughout three of Fortescue’s mining operations in Western Australia.
Chichester Metals is the working firm for the Chichester Hub iron ore operations comprising the Cloudbreak and the Christmas Creek mines. FMG Solomon operates the namesake Solomon mine. Fortescue’s AHS vehicles are managed from its Hive centre in Perth.
This renewed settlement builds on over a decade-long deployment of Cat MineStar Command know-how at Fortescue’s operations, which started in 2012 when Fortescue turned the primary firm globally to implement Caterpillar’s autonomous haulage system (AHS) on a business scale.
“Fortescue has led the business within the large-scale deployment of autonomous haulage for greater than a decade. This settlement ensures continuity in using Cat MineStar Command throughout components of our operations, supporting protected, dependable and environment friendly efficiency on website,” mentioned Dino Otranto, Chief Govt Officer, Fortescue Metals and Operations.
“Our work with Fortescue on autonomous haul vehicles and programs to drive operational enhancements at website has been longstanding. The Caterpillar crew seems to be ahead to furthering this superior know-how deployment and management constructed on the muse of innovation set over a decade in the past,” mentioned Marc Cameron, Senior Vice President of Useful resource Industries Gross sales, Providers and Expertise, Caterpillar.
This prolonged settlement helps Fortescue’s continued deal with security and operational effectivity, aligned with its 2030 Actual Zero Goal. Fortescue works intently with Caterpillar’s WA seller, WesTrac.
Wanting on the massive image, Fortescue’s personal HaulX platform will in the end mix AHS with fleet administration, collision avoidance (CAS) and machine steerage. The CAS half is nicely superior – it’s at the moment energetic throughout greater than 400 belongings in Fortescue’s Pilbara operations – roughly 80 heavy mining tools items and over 320 mild automobiles.
In 2024, Fortescue introduced that it was combining its experience with Liebherr to develop and validate an AHS to be built-in with the zero emission T 264 battery electrical haul vehicles that the businesses co-developed, with the goal of them turning into the primary AHS working zero emissions automobiles globally. As a part of the AHS growth, Liebherr and Fortescue have additionally been working to develop an built-in fleet administration system and machine steerage resolution.
In August 2023, Liebherr had introduced the deployment of a fleet of 4 T 264 autonomous vehicles in Western Australia for onsite validation, which was an necessary step in Liebherr’s growth of a brand new open autonomy product for the mining business. This onsite validation occurred on the Christmas Creek mine website, within the Inexperienced Vitality Hub, a purpose-built facility for validating zero emission and autonomous haulage applied sciences.
Liebherr’s T 264 truck has been deployed at Fortescue’s Eliwana and Iron Bridge operations, the latter as a part of Thiess-contracted operations. The preliminary vehicles have been diesel-electric drive with the total battery electrical model being phased in.
XCMG vehicles are additionally set to deploy at Fortescue operations – specifically the battery electrical XDE260E, the primary items of that are anticipated to reach in 2028.
