The world’s first fully autonomous road trains have been designed and developed for MinRes’s flagship Onslow Iron project in Western Australia.

The fleet of 120 vehicles will combine technological expertise from Hexagon’s Autonomous Solutions with MinRes’s operational knowledge and promise enormous benefits.

Each triple-trailer vehicle will carry 330 tonnes of iron ore about 150km on a dedicated private haul road from the Ken’s Bore mine site to the Port of Ashburton.

Ore will be transported to a 220,000-tonne enclosed, negative pressure storage facility at the port. From there, 20,000-tonne capacity transhippers will move the ore to cape-size carriers 40 kilometres off the coast.

A team of operators will control the fleet from a central operating centre in Onslow. MinRes is also developing an artificial intelligence-powered monitoring system.

Safety is at the forefront of the project’s design. Grade separation will ensure there is no interaction between the autonomous road trains operating on the haul road and vehicles using public roads.

Benefits include removing the risk of driver fatigue, increasing fleet availability, lowering operating costs and reducing fuel use and emissions.

MinRes Chief Executive, Mining Services Mike Grey said: “We’re excited to cement our partnership with Hexagon to deliver the world’s first fleet of autonomous road trains, which will be an essential part of Onslow Iron’s safe, efficient and dust-free solution for hauling ore.

“Automation will remove the risk of driver fatigue, lower operating costs and reduce fuel use and emissions. There’s enormous potential for these vehicles to transform mining across the world.”