Escondida mine union warns of self-driving truck accidents
SANTIAGO - Two recent accidents involving autonomous trucks are raising safety concerns, a workers' union at BHP's Escondida mine in Chile, the world's largest copper mine, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The union, which has often been critical of BHP and has staged strikes as part of contract negotiations, said that on August 25 an autonomous truck collided with shovel machinery and the week before, another truck overturned.
It did not report any injuries.
Despite that, the head of the Union Patricio Tapia told Reuters that while workers don't operate the vehicles, they perform other tasks in the area like maintaining roads.
In a statement, BHP said it has trained more than 4 800 workers in its automation process and has "totally eliminated" having people exposed when material is moved in the open pit.
BHP said that one of the incidents involving the autonomous trucks happened in March.
"In the other incident, that involved a mechanical shovel with an autonomous truck, there were no exposed people and it is still under internal investigation," the statement said.
The company in July said it had fully implemented autonomous operations for 33 trucks and eight drills at the mine's Escondida Norte unit, completing a five-year rollout.
"Less than a month since the announcement, the reality is revealing a huge risk to the safety of workers," the statement said.
Escondida produced 1.28-million tons of copper last year.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Showroom
We supply customers with practical affordable solutions for their testing needs. Our products include benchtop, portable, in-line process control...
VISIT SHOWROOM
From batteries for boats and jet skis, to batteries for cars and quad bikes, SABAT Batteries has positioned itself as the lifestyle battery of...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
