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Rio Tinto to increase autonomous trucks in fleet to 30% at Pilbara operations

Rio Tinto plans to increase the number of autonomous trucks at its iron ore operations in Pilbara, Western Australia, to 30% of its total fleet of about 400 haul trucks, from 20%, The West Australian reported Dec. 18, citing comments from the company's iron ore CEO, Chris Salisbury.

The company plans to add the Autonomous Haulage System technology to 19 trucks at the Marandoo mine by end of 2019 and 29 trucks at its Brockman 4 mine by mid-2019.

Following completion, the Brockman 4 operation will be entirely autonomous.

Rio Tinto expects to realize an additional A$500 million of free cash flow from its iron ore business from 2021 on the back of its autonomous program.

At the start of October, the company completed the first fully autonomous rail journey, a nearly 100-kilometer pilot run, at its Pilbara iron ore operations.

Rio Tinto also plans to seek board approval in 2018 to develop a US$2.2 billion "intelligent" iron ore mine at its preproduction-stage Koodaideri project, part of its Hamersley Consolidated operation. The mine will use technologies including robotics and driverless trains and trucks.