The 100Mt primarily included material from the West Angelas iron ore mine, where AHT technology was first trialled, and the Yandicoogina mine, which currently operates a fleet of 13 AHTs.

More recently, the 6.6Mt per annum Nammuldi open pit moved 2Mt of material with six AHTs.

Rio said it expected to have more than 40 trucks operating autonomously across three sites in the Pilbara by early 2014 and that four AHTs were already on site at the Hope Downs operation.

The company said AHTs were a key component of its strategy of employing next-generation technology to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve health, safety and environmental performance.

Rio’s general manager for the Mine of the Future program James Petty said the trucks had performed well.

“Since we commenced trials in December 2008 we have demonstrated improvements in both safety and productivity and in that time we have trained more than 270 employees to operate and work alongside these autonomous haul trucks,” he said.

“Our teams managing this equipment recognise the significant opportunity they have to be up-skilled in a mining system which is at the forefront of the global mining industry.”

Rio is currently operating 19 autonomous 930E Komatsu trucks with payloads of 290t.

It said the vehicles provided a 10% improvement in time utilisation.