Thiess has celebrated a milestone at Lake Vermont coal mine of moving more than 10 million banked cubic metres semi-autonomously.

The contractor launched its fleet of six Cat D11 dozers with the semi-autonomous tractor system (SATS) at the Bowen Basin site three years ago.

Thiess Group executive chair and chief executive officer Michael Wright said the company had one of the world’s largest active deployments of SATS technology.

“Since introducing this technology at Lake Vermont in 2020, we’ve seen a 10 per cent reduction in unit cost and 25 per cent improvement in dozer utilisation,” he said.

The Cat D11 dozers on site are equipped with Cat MineStar Command for dozing, enabling the machine to perform repeatable processes, such as loading the blade, pushing, dumping and grade control with consistent accuracy each time.

Thiess Group head of autonomy and operations technology, Trent Smith said 10 million banked cubic metres was equivalent in volume to 4000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

“Moving this amount without an operator in the machine is a significant milestone,” he said.

“It reflects Thiess’ ongoing commitment to linking people and technology to deliver safety and operational efficiency outcomes.

“With this technology, a single operator can quickly and easily control multiple dozers from the comfort and safety of a remote operating station, significantly improving production output and reducing fatigue.”

Thiess said it was also implementing Cat MineStar Command for dozing technology within a rehabilitation application in Queensland.