Autonomous technology reduced costs without endangering worker lives in Queensland’s Isaac region.
Jellinbah Group recently welcomed money saved from deploying six semi-automated Cat D11 dozers to the Lake Vermont coal mine in Dysart, 246km south west of Mackay.
“Since introducing this technology at Lake Vermont in 2020 we have seen a 10 per cent reduction in unit cost and 25 per cent improvement in dozer utilisation,” Thiess Group executive chair and CEO Michael Wright said in a public statement.
Contractor Thiess confirmed the dozers had safely relocated 10 million banked cubic metres at the site. The heavy vehicles “accurately” and “consistently” performed blading, pushing, dumping, grade controlling plus other repetitive tasks.
“[This] is equivalent in volume to 4000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Moving this amount without an operator in the machine is a significant milestone,” Thiess head of autonomy and operations technology Trent Smith said.
“With this technology a single operator can quickly and easily control multiple dozers from the comfort and safety of a remote operating station, significantly improving production output and reducing fatigue.”
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