Gigantic, driverless trucks set to transform Minnesota’s iron mining industry

A version of this story first appeared on Minnesota Public Radio.

Hundreds of people stood in a long line that snaked outside the offices of Mesabi Metallics in Nashwauk, Minnesota, last month, eagerly awaiting the chance to get an up-close look at the largest mining trucks ever to rumble across Minnesota’s Iron Range. 

On mud stained red by iron ore, they stood and gaped at one of the mine’s enormous new haul trucks, purchased in anticipation of the mine’s opening next year. 

"It's an amazing piece of equipment,” gushed Jake Schmidt, who drove over an hour for a chance to see the bright yellow Komatsu brand truck, the size of a two-story house. 

"It's a real engineering feat to get that thing built in here and reassembled and going again,” he marveled.  

Nearby, Larry Lanska said it makes older mine trucks, like the ones he used to drive in the 1980s, look like toys. 

"I used to work in the mines, but this is a whole different scale,” he said. 

People posing for pictures were dwarfed by a single, 13-foot-tall tire. The truck can haul 400 tons of rock and ore out of the mine in a single load. That's nearly twice as much as the trucks used at other Minnesota mines. 

“The advantages it gives us here at Mesabi is hauling that bigger payload; it's more efficient per ton of material moved,” said Larry Sutherland, Mesabi Metallics president and chief operating officer, as he pressed a button to lower a staircase needed to climb into the giant truck’s cab.

And efficiency is key, because the mine will be competing against low-cost iron ore produced in places like Australia and Brazil. 

The trucks can also run on electricity, on electric trolley lines set up along the mine’s roads. That reduces emissions and fuel costs and enables trucks to travel twice as fast when climbing steep hills out of the mine pits. 

Eventually, these trucks won't need drivers. These trucks are set up to run autonomously as they travel back and forth within the mine, hauling loads of giant rocks from the mine pits to buildings where the ore will be crushed down into smaller pieces.

That means they can operate around the clock when they’re not shut down for maintenance; no shift changes or bathroom breaks are required.

Most importantly, Sutherland said, autonomous trucks are safer.

“It's human nature sometimes,” said Sutherland. “Mistakes happen. And with this engaged autonomously, [it] very safely watches all its surroundings."

Autonomous trucks were first tested in remote iron ore mines in Western Australia in 2008. Now, there are nearly 4,000 around the world. More than half of them are in use in mines in China.

That trend is expected to continue, especially in new mines like Mesabi Metallics.

“If you have a newly designed mine, you would definitely go for an autonomous one. It has way more advantages than the current systems," said Sebnem Düzgün, a mining engineering professor at the Colorado School of Mines. 

She said it's more difficult to convert existing facilities, especially underground mines, to autonomous systems. For one thing, the navigation systems don’t work well underground in tight spaces.

In general, Düzgün said the technology has been found to improve safety, lower costs, and increase productivity. 

While there's often concern about job losses as the industry is increasingly automated, she said that hasn’t occurred so far. 

"The practice in the world shows that it doesn't reduce jobs,” said Düzgün. “It changes the nature of the job.” Instead of drivers, she said, mines will need more control room operators and data analysts. 

The United Steelworkers, which represents mine workers in northern Minnesota, is taking a wait-and-see approach on the technology. 

"It's something new to the Iron Range, and we don't have any experience dealing with it, and we're just going to take it as it goes,” said John Arbogast, a staff representative for the union.

Mesabi Metallics officials say they will form a committee to evaluate how best to implement the technology. They plan to deploy it as soon as possible. 

Sutherland won't say how much the trucks cost, but they're not cheap. They were part of a $110 million batch of equipment Mesabi Metallics recently purchased. 

The trucks will begin work in the mine early next year, Sutherland said, in advance of it fully opening by June — the first new iron ore mine in Minnesota in nearly half a century.