Jevons reports that its ARTEV Automated Rugged Terrain Electric Vehicle has successfully completed the first phase of its mobilisation at Fortesue’s Eliwana mine in the Pilbara of Western Australia, with the unit now continuing into the next phase of its field trial at the site.
The 6-t-capacity robot is currently running stemming operations in the Pilbara with the objective of eliminating the exposure hours of humans to high-risk terrain. The next phase of the project will be to deploy ANFO in these conditions.
This is a world first in the delivery of explosives and will revolutionise how miners conduct explosive loading, stemming or blast quality assurance in high-risk environments, Jevons says.
Built on the Jevons proprietary remote controlled or autonomous platform, and leveraging unique vision and hole finding technology, the ARTEV 6000 positions over the blast hole to deploy explosives and stemming material, the company explains. The unit removes humans from the hazards of loading bulk explosives and stemming material.
It comes in battery-electric drive with an LFP battery, and offers remote controlled or automated loading of explosive and stemming material in the most rugged terrain in the world, Jevons claims.
Jevons says: “The mobility platform can be configured to carry and deploy a variety of payloads including bulk explosives, stemming, drilling fluids, water, de-watering equipment, sensors and monitoring equipment, and/or geophysical sensors. The Jevons-designed solution possesses a unique ability to traverse terrain with slopes up to 15° and complex cross slopes, thus ensuring security for precious sensitive payloads.”
Jevons Robotics CEO, Todd Peate, said: “We are incredibly grateful for the vision and leadership of the Fortescue decarbonisation and drill and blast teams who are working every day to keep their people safe and reduce carbon emissions through their operations. We look forward to a long-term future as we play our role in the decarbonisation of heavy industries around the world.”
Throughout the December quarter of 2024 Jevons conducted field trials on behalf of other global mining companies at the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct, Australia’s largest test and development site supporting the advancement of automation, robotics, remote operations and zero emissions technologies globally.