Global Air Cylinder Wheels’ patented Air Suspension Wheel (ASW) has won the 2026 People’s Choice Safety Innovation Award at the Queensland Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference, recognising its performance in Australian mine trials. The ASW replaces conventional pneumatic tyres with a mechanical air-cylinder suspension system integrated into the wheel, designed to reduce tyre blowouts, heat build-up and vibration on haul trucks and other heavy equipment. For mine operators, the technology targets lower maintenance downtime, more predictable tyre behaviour on haul roads and improved operator comfort in high-duty cycles.

Two Toyota HiLux battery-electric vehicles are now operating in production conditions at BHP Mitsubishi Alliance’s Goonyella Riverside open-cut coal mine in Queensland, extending BHP’s earlier HiLux BEV trial into a high-duty, hot-climate pit environment. The light vehicles are being used in regular mine operations rather than test tracks, exposing the BEV platform to rough haul roads, dust, and extended shift cycles typical of large truck-and-shovel coal operations. Data from this deployment will inform future mine-spec BEV light vehicle design, charging strategies, and maintenance regimes for heavy mining fleets.

Unplanned conveyor shutdowns in bulk material handling are linked to single belt failures or undetected drift conditions that can stop an entire processing plant or export chain, with losses rapidly escalating per hour of downtime. Pacific Automation’s Smart Series approach focuses on eliminating nuisance trips by improving belt drift detection, pull-wire reliability and misalignment sensing, using smarter field devices and better trip logic. For mining engineers, the message is to treat conveyor protection systems as critical process equipment, not simple safety interlocks, and to prioritise condition monitoring and diagnostics in design and upgrades.