Last Caterpillar R2900G with RCT AutoNav: fleet upgrade lessons for mine engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Last Caterpillar R2900G loader off the production line has been delivered to a long‑running Queensland silver‑lead mine fitted with RCT – Powered by Epiroc’s AutoNav multi‑machine automation system. The mine, which has used RCT control and automation on its underground LHD fleet for nearly 30 years, now runs AutoNav across its production loaders and added four new units last year. Fitting AutoNav to the final R2900G signals continued investment in autonomous tramming and centralised control rather than immediate wholesale fleet replacement.
Technical Brief
- Retrofittable control hardware enables staged automation upgrades without major modification to existing underground infrastructure.
- Similar brownfield underground mining operations can extend fleet life by overlaying navigation and traffic‑management automation.
Our Take
RCT – Powered by Epiroc’s nearly 30-year presence at a Queensland silver-lead operation mirrors its broader strategy seen in our database of embedding long-term automation and safety systems at brownfield sites rather than only chasing greenfield projects.
The same AutoNav family being fitted to the last R2900G in Queensland has recently been deployed on CAT dozers and a 992 loader at a Canadian nickel mine restart, signalling that RCT is standardising an OEM-agnostic control layer across both underground and surface fleets.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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