Last month EACON began commissioning of a fleet of six Komatsu HD1500 trucks retrofitted with its autonomous haulage technology in the Havana Pit of Norton Gold Fields in WA, which is owned by Zijin Mining. The fleet has now commenced day-shift autonomous operations, operating without safety drivers in the active production environment. The current day-shift rollout is also upskilling the site team for future night-shift autonomous operations.
The project represents a pioneering retrofit deployment of autonomous haulage technology on Komatsu HD1500 haul trucks, as well as the first autonomous haulage deployment in an active mining production environment in the Kalgoorlie Goldfields region.
This milestone follows an extensive period of drive-by-wire system design and validation, system integration, localised autonomy feature validation, and safety test undertaken to support deployment under Australian mining conditions at the Mulgarrie operation. Ahead of the commencement of autonomous operations, a range of infrastructure and operational readiness activities were completed.
The fleet comprises trucks drawn from existing operations, each converted for autonomous operation through EACON’s OEM-agnostic autonomy solution, including drive-by-wire retrofit. This allows autonomous haulage to be introduced using existing fleet assets, reducing the need for new capital equipment and minimising disruption to ongoing operations.
Over the coming months, the project will continue to evaluate both the operational and safety performance of the fleet.
Following the placement of telecommunications infrastructure orders in January 2026, more than five months were dedicated to telecommunications upgrades, on-premise server deployment, AOZ preparation, risk assessments, and operational process changes prior to the commencement of autonomous haulage operations.
The transition from isolated test ground to production environment represents a significant milestone for all teams involved in the project.
Elaine Jin, Chief Growth Officer at EACON Australia, commented on the capability required to support autonomous haulage in a live production environment: “Transitioning autonomous haulage into a live production environment raises the bar for on-site support across AHS operations, technical support and training. Through the NGF project, EACON is building a strong local support team and the operational experience required to support future autonomous haulage projects in Australia.”
Beyond the immediate project scope, this milestone represents an important step in the deployment of autonomous haulage within an existing mining operation, as it demonstrates a practical pathway for introducing autonomy using brownfield fleet assets and existing haul road infrastructure.
EACON Mining Technology delivers the world’s most deployed autonomous haulage system, with over 2,500 trucks automated, 120 million kilometres driven, and 30 projects across commodities including coal, iron ore, copper, gold, and zinc.