Business

Tuesday February 21, 2012

Rio Tinto bets US$518m on future of automation


MELBOURNE: Global miner Rio Tinto has accelerated a move toward automation, unveiling a US$518mil plan to pioneer the use of driverless trains in Australia and increasing its bet on a future where machines rather than miners do most of the work.

The world’s No. 2 iron ore miner, which already has driverless trucks, plans to run fully automated trains across its 1,500 km iron ore rail network in northwest Australia from 2014, to help boost output 60% by 2015.

The refitted trains will be operated like a space mission from a control room in Perth, 1,500 km away, from where Rio now runs the driverless trucks.

“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 on Australia Broadcasting Corp radio after the announcement yesterday.

Rio said it wanted to avoid forcing workers to toil beneath the scorching heat of the Pilbara, a desert region that ranks among the world’s richest iron ore precincts, but automation also enabled it to overcome a shortage of skilled labour.

The shortage has been fuelled by a record boom in mining and energy investment, with US$230bil worth of projects under way in Australia. – Reuters

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