Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Boliden have completed the autonomous transport project at Boliden’s Garpenberg site in Sweden.
The project was the first step under the memorandum of understanding signed between Volvo and Boliden in 2023, and it marks an important milestone in a collaboration that also includes future projects.
As a part of the project, material was moved from an on-site quarry on Boliden premises and used to reinforce a local dam and heighten the dam wall.
In total, close to 700,000 tonnes of rock fill material were transported autonomously – roughly equivalent to 280 Olympic swimming pools, or the combined weight of around 100 Eiffel Towers. Volvo’s autonomous haulage system ran more than 11,000 transport cycles covering 56,000 kilometers.
Ingo Stuermer, CTO at VAS, says: “Autonomy has clear benefits for the mining industry, especially when it comes to removing people from hazardous environments and improving the safety and efficiency of operations.
“With more than 700,000 tonnes transported at Garpenberg, we have demonstrated that autonomous haulage works at scale, in real conditions and in real customer operations.”
Rikard Mäki, head of electrification and automation, Boliden, says: “We are very pleased to reach the 700 000 milestone of autonomous transports at our tailings facility in Garpenberg.
“Of course, we will continue to seek safe and productive solutions in partnership, with the aim of developing world-leading mining operations.”
The solution deployed at Garpenberg is Autona / earth, Volvo Autonomous Solutions’ offering for mines and quarries. Autona / earth combines the autonomous Volvo FH for mining with Volvo’s in-house developed virtual driver, infrastructure, operational support and maintenance needed to run autonomous transport.
Delivered as transport-as-a-service, Autona / earth integrates autonomous technology into customer’s existing operations, with VAS managing the technical complexity and regulatory compliance required for deployment.
The completion of the Garpenberg project demonstrates that autonomous transports offer a competitive solution in certain mining operations.
It provides a strong foundation for the continued collaboration between Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Boliden and signals to the wider industry that successful autonomous operations are built on strong partnerships.
