Epiroc completes autonomous conversion at Roy Hill mine

Epiroc AB, a partner to the mining and infrastructure industries, has completed the conversion of all 78 mining haul trucks at Hancock Iron Ore's Roy Hill mine in Western Australia to fully driverless operation. The conversion, utilizing Epiroc's LinkOA system, establishes Roy Hill as the world's largest fully original equipment manufacturer (OEM)-agnostic autonomous mine.

The project involved close collaboration between Epiroc and Hancock Iron Ore. Currently, 60 of the 78 converted trucks are in autonomous operation, with the remaining trucks to be deployed and ancillary vehicles' communication capabilities finalized. The LinkOA system is designed for interoperability and scalability, regardless of truck manufacturer. The autonomous fleet will comprise 54 Caterpillar 793F trucks and 24 Hitachi EH5000 trucks.

"Hancock Iron Ore is at the absolute forefront of mining automation, and we are happy to play a key role in their success," said Epiroc President and CEO Helena Hedblom. "It's very exciting to see the major progress done on this project, which represents a major step forward for autonomous mining globally." Gerhard Veldsman, CEO of Hancock Iron Ore, added, "Interoperability opens productivity and safety benefits to many more, an outcome we can all be proud to have been part of."

The autonomous trucks at Roy Hill use Epiroc's LinkOA traffic management and automation systems to navigate the mine's virtual map and communicate with ancillary vehicles and a remote operations center located 1,100 km away. Over 250 million tonnes of material have been moved autonomously, with the trucks traveling approximately 6 million kilometers safely. The final phase is on track for completion by December 2025.

Epiroc received Hancock Iron Ore's 2025 Innovation Award for its role in the project and recognized approximately SEK 300 million in revenues from the project in the third quarter of 2025.