Zijin Mining-owned Norton Gold Fields has announced an important milestone on its autonomy journey with EACON Mining Technology and Thiess in Western Australia. Last week on December 18, an autonomous Komatsu HD1500 haul truck successfully completed its first fully autonomous test cycle with no safety driver onboard at one of its operations.
The mining company stated: “This achievement follows a structured program of testing, validation, and staged implementation, and represents a meaningful step forward in how we safely introduce autonomy into a live mining environment. Autonomous haulage has the potential to deliver safer working conditions, more consistent operations, and improved productivity, while also supporting our broader ESG objectives through smarter use of technology and data-driven decision-making.”
It added: “Importantly, this milestone is not just about technology. It reflects strong collaboration, disciplined execution, and a shared commitment to safety and operational excellence. We would like to acknowledge Thiess as a key operational partner, whose on-site experience, safety leadership, and practical approach have been instrumental in supporting this phase of validation. We also sincerely thank EACON Mining Technology for their technical expertise and partnership, and commend the Norton project team for their professionalism, focus, and relentless attention to safety throughout the process. As we continue to adopt innovative technologies responsibly, we remain focused on building safer, smarter, and more sustainable mining operations at Norton.”
EACON said it is a landmark achievement in autonomous driving applications, signifying that the system possesses fully autonomous operation capabilities in specific scenarios and marking a significant breakthrough for Chinese mining autonomous driving technology in the Australian market.
Since the project’s launch in March of this year, EACON says it has conducted systematic technical debugging and scenario adaptation to meet local Australian technical standards and operating procedures. It adds that the completion of this test indicates that its autonomous driving system has passed the phased test of Australia’s high-standard mining production requirements, and provides strong support for its subsequent large-scale and commercial advancement in high-standard international scenarios.
EACON stated: “The Australian market has extremely high requirements for technology and safety standards, necessitating in-depth customised development. The success of this test fully demonstrates EACON’s ability to provide customised solutions for the Australian market. We will build upon this foundation to continuously deepen technology localisation and provide precisely tailored intelligent solutions for different mining scenarios.”
This marks the first fully automated field test of Chinese mining autonomous driving technology in Australia, providing a practical example for the implementation of intelligent mining solutions in overseas mining markets and accumulating crucial experience in the deep integration of its technical standards with global mining needs. Based on this breakthrough, EACON says it will continue to strengthen its technological research and development and localisation capabilities, providing customised solutions for mining standards in different countries and regions.
Norton has a mining and processing complex in Western Australia’s world-class Kalgoorlie gold region, including highly prospective tenement packages of more than 1,000 km² surrounding the 4 Mt/y Paddington Mill and the 5.0 Mt/y Binduli North Heap Leach Project.
Source: im-mining.com
