Autonomous mining trucks collide at Jimblebar

March 18, 2019 Mining Editor

BHP has confirmed that two autonomous mining trucks collided at the Jimblebar mine on Saturday evening at around 11.pm.

A spokesperson for BHP confirmed that the autonomous truck incident occurred as a result of a loss of traction on slippery road surfaces when one vehicle slipped into the other. The trucks were travelling at relatively low speeds when the incident occurred. One truck was travelling at 27 km/h and the other at 14 km/h.

No people were injured in the incident.

The spokesperson said it followed “significant rainfall that deteriorated road surface, causing one vehicle to slip into the other”.

“Operations resumed in the hours after the incident and no one was injured”

Jimblebar has successfully operated autonomous trucks since 2013 and reportedly run a 100% autonomous truck fleet since December 2017.

An internal investigation is being conducted by BHP iron ore Jimblebar.

The autonomous haul truck incident follows another minor incident at Fortescue Metals last month.

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