Rio Tinto has confirmed that it investigated a fire that occurred on a haul truck at the Yandicoogina mine in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
There was no one injured during or as a result of the fire as no one was in the truck, according to a Rio Tinto spokesperson.
Rio Tinto’s on-site emergency response team attended the fire, with the Department of Mines, Industry, Regulation and Safety (DMIRS) informed of the incident.
This is the second incident involving an autonomous truck following Rio Tinto’s haul truck collided with an unattended light vehicle in November.
Given the trucks were operating in manual mode during both incidents, Safe to Work understands neither collision was caused by autonomous operations.
The previous incident occurred at Rio Tinto’s Brockman 4 iron ore mine, which is just under 325 kilometres west from Yandicoogina.
Rio Tinto subsidiary Pilbara Iron owns the Yandicoogina mine. It produces almost 60 million tonnes of iron ore annually, making it one of the largest iron ore mines in the world.