Caterpillar and Fortescue extend Command for hauling agreement for Western Australia mines

Caterpillar Inc has announced a renewed agreement with Chichester Metals Ltd and FMG Solomon Pty Ltd (together, Fortescue’s operating entities) to continue the supply and operation of Cat^® MineStar Command for hauling across three of Fortescue’s mining operations in Western Australia.

Chichester Metals is the operating company for the Chichester Hub iron ore operations comprising the Cloudbreak and the Christmas Creek mines. FMG Solomon operates the namesake Solomon mine. Fortescue’s AHS trucks are managed from its Hive centre in Perth.

This renewed agreement builds on over a decade-long deployment of Cat MineStar Command technology at Fortescue’s operations, which began in 2012 when Fortescue became the first company globally to implement Caterpillar’s autonomous haulage system (AHS) on a commercial scale.

“Fortescue has led the industry in the large-scale deployment of autonomous haulage for more than a decade. This agreement ensures continuity in the use of Cat MineStar Command across parts of our operations, supporting safe, reliable and efficient performance on site,” said Dino Otranto, Chief Executive Officer, Fortescue Metals and Operations.

“Our work with Fortescue on autonomous haul trucks and systems to drive operational improvements at site has been longstanding. The Caterpillar team looks forward to furthering this advanced technology deployment and leadership built on the foundation of innovation set over a decade ago,” said Marc Cameron, Senior Vice President of Resource Industries Sales, Services and Technology, Caterpillar.

This extended agreement supports Fortescue’s continued focus on safety and operational efficiency, aligned with its 2030 Real Zero Target. Fortescue works closely with Caterpillar’s WA dealer, WesTrac.

Looking at the big picture, Fortescue’s own HaulX platform will ultimately combine AHS with fleet management, collision avoidance (CAS) and machine guidance. The CAS part is well advanced – it is currently active across more than 400 assets in Fortescue’s Pilbara operations – approximately 80 heavy mining equipment units and over 320 light vehicles.

In 2024, Fortescue announced that it was combining its expertise with Liebherr to develop and validate an AHS to be integrated with the zero emission T 264 battery electric haul trucks that the companies co-developed, with the aim of them becoming the first AHS operating zero emissions vehicles globally. As part of the AHS development, Liebherr and Fortescue have also been working to develop an integrated fleet management system and machine guidance solution.

In August 2023, Liebherr had announced the deployment of a fleet of four T 264 autonomous trucks in Western Australia for onsite validation, which was an important step in Liebherr’s development of a new open autonomy product for the mining industry. This onsite validation took place at the Christmas Creek mine site, in the Green Energy Hub, a purpose-built facility for validating zero emission and autonomous haulage technologies.

Liebherr’s T 264 truck has been deployed at Fortescue’s Eliwana and Iron Bridge operations, the latter as part of Thiess-contracted operations. The initial trucks were diesel-electric drive with the full battery electric version being phased in.

XCMG trucks are also set to deploy at Fortescue operations – namely the battery electric XDE260E, the first units of which are expected to arrive in 2028.