Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan-based industrial machinery and mining equipment manufacturer Komatsu Limited for the supply and purchase of driverless trucks. Accordingly, Rio Tinto will become the owner of the world's largest fleet of driverless trucks, buying at least 150 driverless trucks from Komatsu in the next four years.
The new trucks, which will start arriving in 2012, will be used in Rio Tinto's Pilbara iron ore mines in Western Australia and can be controlled from its operations centre located more than 1500 km away, in Perth.
According to Rio Tinto's statement, this move marks the latest development in Rio Tinto's Mine of the Future program, which introduces next-generation technologies for mining operations to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve health, safety and environmental performance.