Robot Trains Are Slashing Mining Costs in Australia's Outback

Snaking through Western Australia’s Outback, a driverless train has made the first autonomous delivery of iron ore from a Rio Tinto Group pit to a coastal port, as the No. 2 miner looks to reap the benefits from a $940 million plan deploying the world’s biggest robots. For Rio and its rivals, productivity improvements gained from new technology are helping to sustain efforts to trim costs and protect margins as iron ore prices wane. “Every train driver drives a bit differently, it’s very complex and they all have different levels of performance,” Ivan Vella, managing director for rail, port and core services at Rio’s iron ore unit, said in a phone interview.