WA’s largest gold mine transitions to fully autonomous haul truck fleet

1504
Carlin Nevada

Newmont Corporation has announced the delivery of the gold industry’s first Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) fleet at the Boddington gold mine in Western Australia.

Located 13 km northwest of Boddington, the Boddington gold mine is WA’s largest gold producer, delivering 670,000 ounces and 56 million pounds of copper in 2020.

Newmont said in a statement that it has invested $150 million in Boddington’s AHS project to create a safer, more efficient mine.

“Following completion of the industry’s fastest AHS commissioning program, Boddington continues to ramp up the truck fleet to full productivity as the site fine tunes the technology for operation in a deep open pit mine,” reads the statement.

Adertisement

Newmont President and CEO Tom Palmer noted that with the transition to a fully autonomous haulage fleet of 36 trucks, the company would improve mine safety and productivity, while extending mine life.

“Newmont is proud to deliver the gold industry’s first autonomous haul truck fleet at Boddington, an important milestone for the company and the industry as a whole,” Mr Palmer said.

“Delivering this project on time and on budget during a global pandemic is an enormous accomplishment. I am grateful for our team and our partners at Caterpillar for their ongoing dedication and drive.

“The scale and long life of our operations enables Newmont to implement leading technologies to promote both safety and productivity. We look forward to leveraging this project and our commissioning experience at our other operations and projects around the globe.”

Newmont is the world’s leading gold company and a producer of copper, silver, zinc and lead. The company’s owns a portfolio of world-class assets located in North America, South America, Australia and Africa.

Image credit: https://www.newmont.com/multimedia/default.aspx