March 17, 2024 - Komatsu Ltd has announced that the number of commercial deployments of Komatsu FrontRunner, an autonomous haulage system (AHS), on AHS trucks has surpassed 700 as of February 2024. This includes over 100 units of the 980E-AT, one of the world’s largest ultra-class dump truck capable of carrying 400 t.

The 700th AHS truck was deployed at Glencore’s Lomas Bayas copper mine in Chile, which introduced Komatsu AHS for the first time in November 2023. This milestone marks a significant achievement for Komatsu, which began the AHS trial in 2005 and achieved the world’s first commercial AHS deployment in January 2008. Since then, Komatsu has deployed AHS at 23 mine sites in five countries, with AHS trucks hauling 7.5 billion t of materials by the end of February 2024.

“Our first autonomous trucks are already operating in the region, which means the culmination of the first stage of this great project, which we could potentially – as Copper Department and scale it later to other Glencore assets, so that other sites have the benefit of what is being conducted here today”, said Abraham Chahuán, South America Copper Assets Director, Glencore.

“We express our profound gratitude to Glencore’s invaluable partnership spirit, which leads successful AHS deployment at Lomas Bayas copper mine. FrontRunner is bringing safer, more reliable, and consistent mine operations while lowering operating costs and increasing production. Komatsu continues to be committed to providing quality solutions with our customers through One Komatsu team”, said Masayuki Moriyama, president of Komatsu’s Mining Business Division.