Caterpillar surpasses 5-billion-tonne autonomous milestone

Marilyn Scales | October 3, 2022 | 11:13 am News 
Cat autonomous haulage trucks have moved more than 5 billion tonnes without a lost-time injury. Credit: Caterpillar

In a mining first for autonomous haulage, trucks equipped with Caterpillar Cat MineStar Command for hauling have now moved over 5 billion tonnes. Cat autonomous trucks are on pace to eclipse previous record totals of materials hauled in a calendar year, projected to be more than 1.4 billion tonnes 2022.

Currently, more than 550 mining trucks are equipped with Command for hauling, operating across three continents. Over the last nine years, trucks equipped with Command for hauling have journeyed nearly the average distance between the Earth and Mars with zero lost-time injuries.

Caterpillar has enabled 13 customers at 23 different locations to succeed with full site autonomous haulage solutions.

Since the first autonomous trucks began operating in 2013 at Fortescue Mining’s Solomon iron ore mines and BHP’s Jimblebar iron mine in Australia, the trucks have travelled nearly 200 million km. The number of autonomous trucks in operation has increased by 40% in the last two years

Since 2019, Caterpillar has won eight of nine greenfield autonomy contracts, including ioneer [TE1] Ltd.’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada.

The growth is continuing; new Cat 789 AC electric dive trucks are replacing BHP’s entire haulage fleet at the Escondida copper mine in Peru.

More information on Cat Command for hauling trucks can be found by contacting a Cat dealer or visiting www.Caterpillar.com.

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