Experts believe that in the next 5 to 7 years, the share of driverless vehicles in the total number of mining dump trucks in Russia may increase to 10-15%.
The first self-driving dump truck project for the mining industry appeared 30 years ago. The pioneer is Caterpillar. Since 2008, international concern Rio Tinto has successfully used special driverless equipment in mines in Australia, where autonomous trucks have transported more than a billion tons of rock. And they are controlled by operators from a central control panel in Perth, thousands of kilometers from the mine.
Overall, the number of driverless dump trucks in operation worldwide is approaching four thousand.
In Russia, the use of such devices is mainly in experimental mode. For example, self-propelled BelAZs were tested at coal mines in Siberia (SDS-Ugol, Kuzbassrazrezugol) and iron mines in Karelia (Karelsky Okatysh).
By the way
In July of this year, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation presented a draft government resolution on an experimental legal regime for LLC GDK Baimskaya.
In the Far East, this technology is used in Chukotka, during the development of the Baimskoye mine, one of the largest copper mines in the world.
— When we structured this project, we decided to use unmanned mining dump trucks. In our case, these are machines weighing 300 tons – the largest available on the market”, said Georgy Fotin, CEO of Baimskaya Management Company LLC. – In total, we have more than 50 such dump trucks. We plan to use unmanned drilling rigs, excavators are also controlled from a remote center.
The main advantage of automatic special equipment is high productivity. Drones operate on a 24/7/365 schedule; it doesn't require lunch breaks, smoke breaks, vacations or sick days. Safety increases: first, people are removed from dangerous environments where collapses, gas pollution and other adverse factors can occur, second, the influence of human factors (fatigue, distraction, errors), which are common causes of accidents, is reduced. Due to complete automation, the life of the equipment is extended.
At the same time, the payback period of autonomous equipment is high; Medium-sized companies cannot afford such equipment.
According to Baimskaya experts, the application of unmanned technology can save tens of millions of dollars every year, including in the preparation and maintenance of rotation camps.
“To implement this type of technology, you need to pay attention to two things,” said Georgy Fotin. “First is the legal regulation. Unfortunately, today we see that the regulator does not always keep up with the implementation of such innovations; there are certain limitations.
The legal framework of the Russian Federation does not yet have clear regulations allowing the operation of heavy unmanned vehicles in open-pit mining. There are no approved security protocols, communications standards or cybersecurity requirements for those systems.
The general director took personnel as the second point.
“Operators first need to be trained at the training center, then transferred to Chukotka. — We are collaborating with Far Eastern colleges and higher education institutions to actually open new specialties. Our task now is to transition from automated solutions that we mainly use at the construction stage to automated solutions – we will deploy them at the field operation stage,” points out Georgy Fotin.
Comment
Vladimir Voloshin, Director of the Department of Digital Development and Data Economy of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development:
— Due to the lack of human resources, effective development of the Far Eastern economy without unmanned technology and robotization is impossible. The President set the task of expanding the experimental legal regime (EPR) for unmanned aircraft systems throughout the Far East, allowing the use of drones weighing more than 30 kg in all 11 objects of the macro. Let me remind you that currently EPR operates only in Kamchatka and in certain territories of the Sakhalin region (including the first drone port in Russia, Pushisty). I think it is right to go further and at the same time with BAS removing all legal barriers to the application of robotics technology in the Far East. It is important to note that we are not talking about replacing humans with robots: the idea is to gradually move to more efficient use of the number of people employed – thousands of people currently work in warehouse centers, carrying out goods sorting and other manual work, while there are not enough specialists needed to carry out vital infrastructure and resource provision projects. This requires an integrated approach, setting the right priorities – it is important to remove restrictions on new projects.
