Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Boliden have completed an autonomous transportation project at Boliden’s Garpenberg site in Sweden.
The project was the first step under the memorandum of understanding signed by Volvo and Boliden in 2023 and saw material moved from an on-site quarry on Boliden premises and then used to reinforce a local dam and heighten the dam wall. In total, close to 700,000 metric tons of rock fill material were transported autonomously. Volvo’s autonomous haulage system ran more than 11,000 transportation cycles covering 56,000km.
“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,” said Ingo Stürmer, CTO at Volvo Autonomous Solutions. “With more than 700,000 metric tons transported at Garpenberg, we have demonstrated that autonomous haulage works at scale, in real conditions and in real customer operations.”
The solution deployed at Garpenberg was Autona / earth, Volvo Autonomous Solutions’ offering for mining and quarry operations. The system combines autonomous Volvo FH trucks with Volvo’s in-house-developed virtual driver, supporting infrastructure, operational services and maintenance. Delivered as a Transport as a Service solution, Autona / earth is designed to integrate into existing operations, with Volvo Autonomous Solutions managing the technical and regulatory requirements for deployment.
“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,” added Rikard Mäki, head of electrification and automation at Boliden.
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