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1) The US government is looking to speed up South32's Hermosa manganese and zinc project through the FAST-41 process. FAST-41 is a US government legislation aimed at promoting faster development of projects that focus on clean energy assets and infrastructure. “The inclusion of Hermosa as the first mining project added to the FAST-41 process is an important milestone that recognizes the project’s potential to strengthen the domestic supply of critical minerals in the US,” Graham Kerr, South32 CEO said in a statement. With the approvals from the State of Arizona, construction and mine development can start in southern Arizona in the Patagonia mountains. “Becoming a covered FAST-41 project will make the rigorous federal environmental review and permitting process for this project more transparent, predictable, and inclusive for all stakeholders,” South32 Hermosa President Pat Risner said.
2) Hexagon, the mine planning software company, is gearing up its mining division to offer open pit autonomous haulage. With heavy weights in the industry like Caterpillar and Komatsu already in the lead and early adopters of autonomous haulage systems, Hexagon is still early as mines are looking for solutions. Hexagon Mining division already made announcements that it will collaborate with Liebherr and partnered with Mineral Resources in Australia on an autonomous road train project for iron ore haulage. Hexagon recently told International Mining: “Like our autonomous road train project, a complete AHS system is in development. Hexagon is one of the few technology companies with a comprehensive set of competencies from onboard autonomy and by-wire, world perception including autonomous and person/object/human operated vehicles, fleet and mission management, positioning including the industry leading NovAtel systems, and reality capture including the industry leading Leica solutions. We are actively discussing projects to bring these stacks together in a single in-pit autonomous solution.”