Epiroc says it has successfully converted – from manual to fully driverless – all 78 mining haul trucks at Hancock Iron Ore’s Roy Hill mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The conversions – using Epiroc’s LinkOA system – are a major milestone on the journey toward creating the world’s largest fully agnostic autonomous mine.
Epiroc and Hancock Iron Ore have collaborated closely with this goal: to create the world’s largest fully agnostic autonomous mine. Now, 78 haul trucks have been converted, and 60 of them are allocated to autonomous operation. The next step is to deploy the remaining trucks and finalise the mine’s ancillary vehicles’ communications capability. LinkOA is interoperable and scalable regardless of manufacturer, so called OEM agnostic.
Ultimately, the mine’s autonomous fleet will comprise 54 Caterpillar 793F trucks and 24 Hitachi EH5000 trucks.
“Hancock Iron Ore is at the absolute forefront of mining automation, and we are happy to play a key role in their success,” Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s President and CEO, says. “It’s very exciting to see the major progress done on this ground-breaking project, which represents a major step forward for autonomous mining globally.”
Hancock Iron Ore (HIO), one of the world’s leading iron ore producers, was created this year when Hancock’s Atlas Iron and Roy Hill joined forces.
“HIO was inspired by the work of our Executive Chairman, Dr Gina Rinehart AO, and Executive Director, Tad Watroba, who selected Epiroc to help lead autonomous mining haulage initially at Roy Hill,” Gerhard Veldsman, Hancock Iron Ore CEO, says. “Interoperability opens productivity and safety benefits to many more, an outcome we can all be proud to have been part of.”
Hancock Iron Ore’s autonomous haul trucks are using Epiroc’s LinkOA traffic management and on-board automation systems to navigate the Roy Hill mine’s virtual map, communicating with ancillary vehicles and the Remote Operations Centre (ROC), some 1,100 km away in Perth. More than 250 Mt of material have been moved autonomously using LinkOA and the trucks have safely travelled around 6 million kilometers, equivalent to going around the world more than 150 times, Epiroc says.
With most of the 78 converted trucks already operating autonomously, the final phase of bringing all the trucks and ancillary vehicles online is on track for completion by December 2025, marking the full realisation of the world’s largest OEM-agnostic autonomous haulage operation, the companies say.
The connectivity was implemented in readiness for AHS operations with support from Radlink, which was fully acquired by Epiroc earlier this year.
In the September quarter of 2025, Epiroc recognised around SEK300 million ($32 million) in revenues from the project. Onwards, Epiroc anticipates annual and recurring revenues from the project, and the order book has been opened for more miners to enjoy the productivity, efficiency and safety of a mixed haul truck fleet.
