Mumbai: Rio Tinto chief executive Tom Albanese unveiled his vision of the `mine of the future' in Perth today as part of the mining giant's drive to maintain its position as Australia's leading iron ore producer.  

Rio Tinto is planning to integrate and automate mining and transport in the Pilbara iron ore region, leading to greater efficiency, lower production costs. It would also make working conditions more attractive and help Rio Tinto to recruit and retain staff in the highly competitive labour market, the company said in a press release.

Major components of the "mine of the future," to be commissioned in Rio Tinto iron ore operations in 2008 and 2009, include establishing a remote operations centre in Perth, Western Australia, to manage operations in the Pilbara mines hundreds of kilometres away. 

Remote control "intelligent" trains, drills and trucks will be operational within Rio Tinto iron ore mines during 2008. Humans will no longer need to be handle as all these equipment will be "autonomous" - able to make decisions on what to do based on their environment and interaction with other machines. Operators will oversee the equipment from the remote control centre.

"Rio Tinto is changing the face of mining.  We have at least a three year start on the rest of the industry, which has focused on discrete technologies rather than modernising the whole mine-to-port operation.  We're aiming to be the global leaders in fully integrated, automated operations.  It will allow for more efficient operations and directly confront the escalating costs associated with basing employees at remote sites, giving us a competitive advantage as an employer along the way," Tom Albanese said.

Rio Tinto's remote operations centre will be built near Perth's domestic airport. When completed in 2009, the ROC will house at least 320 employees who will work with Pilbara-based colleagues to oversee, operate and optimise the use of key assets and processes, including all mines, processing plants, the rail network, ports and power plants. 

The automated mine-to-port iron ore operations would feature:

 - Mine operations in the Pilbara to be controlled 1,300 kilometres away at a new centre in Perth;
 - Driverless trains to carry iron ore on most of the 1,200 km of track;
 - Driverless "intelligent" truck fleet; and
 - Remote control "intelligent" drills

Rio Tinto, headquartered in the UK, combines Rio Tinto plc, a London listed company, and Rio Tinto Limited, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Rio Tinto's business includes mining and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. With a global presence, Rio Tinto has a strong base in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

( See: Rio Tinto to acquire three 250,000 DWT iron ore carriers; plans capacity hike)