Australian mining giant BHP’s Western Australia Iron Ore has reached a significant milestone, with its drills operating autonomously for more than 479,607 hours, drilling more than 25 million meters, equivalent to drilling the distance from Perth to Newman almost 21 times. WAIO’s remotely operated drilling program commenced at Yandi in late 2016 and has since expanded to a total of 26 rigs across 5 Pilbara mine sites. November 2016: Yandi completes a successful 18-month trial of three autonomous drill rigs, paving the way for a staged approach across other WAIO mine sitesJanuary 2017: Mining Area C introduces autonomous drillingOctober 2017: Newman’s Eastern Ridge mine implements autonomous drill rigsDecember 2017: Jimblebar introduces autonomous drillingMarch 2018: Newman’s Whaleback mine implements autonomous drill rigs2020: South Flank rolls out autonomous drill rigs, making WAIO’s drill rig program fully autonomous.WAIO now has one of the biggest autonomous drill fleets in the world, which is managed by 32 crew members and one engineer all based at IROC. The rigs are all controlled remotely from the Integrated Remote Operations Centre in Perth.
Australian mining giant BHP’s Western Australia Iron Ore has reached a significant milestone, with its drills operating autonomously for more than 479,607 hours, drilling more than 25 million meters, equivalent to drilling the distance from Perth to Newman almost 21 times. WAIO’s remotely operated drilling program commenced at Yandi in late 2016 and has since expanded to a total of 26 rigs across 5 Pilbara mine sites. November 2016: Yandi completes a successful 18-month trial of three autonomous drill rigs, paving the way for a staged approach across other WAIO mine sitesJanuary 2017: Mining Area C introduces autonomous drillingOctober 2017: Newman’s Eastern Ridge mine implements autonomous drill rigsDecember 2017: Jimblebar introduces autonomous drillingMarch 2018: Newman’s Whaleback mine implements autonomous drill rigs2020: South Flank rolls out autonomous drill rigs, making WAIO’s drill rig program fully autonomous.WAIO now has one of the biggest autonomous drill fleets in the world, which is managed by 32 crew members and one engineer all based at IROC. The rigs are all controlled remotely from the Integrated Remote Operations Centre in Perth.
