Rio Tinto has accelerated a move toward automation, as the company unveiled a $518 million plan to pioneer the use of driverless trains in Australia, Reuters reported.
According to the news outlet, this represented a move by the company to a future in the mining sector that would rely less on people in the more remote areas of the world, as machines would help to limit costs.
Reuters reported that the world’s number two miner, which has already uses driverless trucks, plans to run fully automated trains across its iron-ore rail network in northwest Australia beginning in 2014.
This move would help to increase mine optimisation for the company, as the resources that would have had to be allocated to paying for drivers and high transportation costs can now be concentrated in extraction and refining of resources.
“This is not just about job losses. That’s not what this is about. This is about us remaining competitive,” Greg Lilleyman, president of Rio Tinto’s Pilbara operations, said during a radio announcement after the news broke.
Rio Tinto will run both the trucks and trains from a remote area, according to Reuters, and the company noted that it wants to avoid forcing workers to drive through the desert region of Pilbara.
The Australian Associated Press reported that the company noted it would be able to expand production capacity at the Pilbara site without having to invest new resources in a train line that could become outdated in a short period of time.
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