BHP celebrating 10 years of remote operations

BHP has announced a major anniversary: the company’s WA Iron Ore operation is celebrating 10 years of its remote operations centre in Perth.

The Integrated Remote Operations Centre (IROC) began operating from BHP’s St Georges Terrace office at the end of 2012. It is responsible for operating most of BHP’s WA iron ore logistics and processes, connecting the four processing hubs and five mining hubs with more than 1000 km of rail and port facilities in the Pilbara.

“The remote operations centre runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year and plays a vital role in ensuring we get our iron ore from pit to port in the safest, quickest and most efficient way possible,” said WAIO Asset President Brandon Craig. “Our iron ore operations are safer, more sustainable and more cost-efficient now than they were 10 years ago, and the remote operations centre has been critical to achieving that.

“The growth in the centre has supported technological advances, career opportunities and with that has come diversification of the team — nearly half of the workforce is female and 12% identify as Indigenous.”

The centre operates a wide range of machinery, trains, trucks and drill rigs in the Pilbara and has recently begun the process of automating the company’s shiploaders in Port Hedland.

Craig said BHP would continue to pursue an automated business model into the future, in an interview with The West Australian. While crushers and ore handling facilities are fully autonomous, about two-thirds of BHP’s truck fleet still require drivers. Jimblebar, about 40 km east of Newman, is the only BHP site that is fully autonomous. The automation of its newest mine, South Flank, has now begun along with Newman and Mining Area C.

Image source: BHP.