Autonomous large mining vehicles will be key to low-cost extraction of critical minerals.
The rapid, global push toward electric vehicles has put a premium on extraction of several critical minerals. Lithium is the most important, but others such as copper, cobalt, nickel and other metals will be needed in large quantities to facilitate large-scale battery production. Caterpillar and Freeport McMorRan have announced a project to automate the company’s fleet of ore hauling heavy equipment at the Baghdad, Arizona copper mine. A first in U.S. mining, the fleet of 33 CAT 793 machines will be converted, with electrification expected in the future.
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Episode Transcript:
With the skyrocketing demand for minerals being driven by the change to electric vehicles, expansion of metals production—particularly lithium, copper and nickel—is a global phenomenon. Large, open pit operations are in operation worldwide, and in all of them ore is hauled by very large, purpose-built equipment.
Although self-driving vehicle technology is currently under test in cities, autonomous haulage is no longer experimental in open pit mining. Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan, the world’s largest molybdenum producer, mines molybdenum and copper at the company’s Baghdad, Arizona, operation one hundred miles northwest of Phoenix. The complex includes an 85,000 ton per day concentrator for copper and molybdenum, and a solution extraction/electrowinning land, making 9 million pounds of copper cathode annually.
Ore is hauled by a fleet of 33 Cat 793 haul trucks, which the company is converting to autonomous operation using Cat’s MineStar Command self-driving system. The 793’s are very large, carrying some 270 tons of ore per load. The large size lowers operating costs, and Freeport expects that self-driving will reduce idle time for lower greenhouse gas emissions, and, crucially, be ready for electrification of the haulage fleet in the future.
Baghdad will be the first copper mine in the United States to implement autonomous haulage. Caterpillar has delivered over 600 autonomous trucks, operating with 15 customers on three continents, with a combined fleet distance travelled of 143 million miles without an injury.
Why mining for autonomous operation? Commercial ore deposits are frequently great distances from an available labor pool. And in many jurisdictions, such as the United States, experienced labor is expensive and must operate within strict safety rules mandated by federal agencies like OSHA, and insurance carriers.
Autonomous vehicles in machine heavy industries like mining addresses the dual competitive challenges faced by many American corporations competing in global markets: labor shortages and high labour costs relative to offshore jurisdictions. And when combined with electric drive, the new technology should address increasing environmental concern about the carbon footprint of mineral extraction for electric vehicle battery materials.
