Rio Tinto locks in Komatsu for Pilbra mining operations

The deal will see the deployment of at least 150 Komatsu AHS mining trucks into Rio Tinto's Iron Ore Pilbara operations in Western Australia by the end of 2015, with the initial deployment commencing in 2012.

Rio Tinto has been testing Komatsu AHS trucks - the world's first commercial autonomous mining haulage system - in the Pilbara since December 2008. During the trials the AHS technology demonstrated clear value to the business especially in the areas of health, safety and productivity.

Komatsu Australia Managing Director, Sean Taylor noted that scale of this deal is unprecedented and is a direct result of the company's continued investment in research and development: "We're very proud of our autonomous program, and the benefits it offers in a mining application. The scale of this rollout demonstrates clearly what the future of mining will look like".

"Komatsu is setting up an Autonomous Support Center in Perth which will be co-located with Rio Tinto's Mine of The Future team, further underlining our joint approach to this technology" added Taylor.

The Komatsu AHS trucks are variations of its large electric mining trucks already in use throughout Australia's booming mining industry. The 930E Electric truck weighs 210 tonnes and has a payload of 320 tonnes. The truck is powered by a 60-litre V16 Turbo Diesel engine, which produces 1900kW of power creating electricity to drive the electric wheel motors.