Sandvik has secured an order from Kamoa Copper SA for 19 Toro® underground trucks and loaders for the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, taking the site’s Sandvik underground fleet to more than 100 units. The equipment will support one of the world’s largest underground Sandvik fleets at a single mine, operated by the Ivanhoe Mines–Zijin Mining joint venture. For engineers, the scale signals sustained high-volume, trackless underground haulage and significant long-term demand for OEM parts, maintenance capacity, and fleet management systems.

Volvo Autonomous Solutions has launched Autona / earth, a commercial autonomous haulage system for mines and quarries built around an autonomous Volvo FH truck and an in-house developed virtual driver. The package is delivered as Transport-as-a-Service, with Volvo providing the vehicle automation stack, site infrastructure, operational support and maintenance rather than selling trucks outright. The system is designed to plug into existing mine haulage operations, signalling a shift towards OEM-managed autonomous fleets where OEMs assume more responsibility for uptime and performance.

ABD Solutions, a UK-based subsidiary of AB Dynamics, is entering the increasingly crowded full-stack Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) market with a robotics-driven platform derived from automotive autonomy technology rather than traditional mining OEM systems. The company positions its solution to retrofit existing haul trucks and auxiliary fleets, aiming to decouple autonomy from specific vehicle brands and reduce dependence on greenfield-only deployments. For mine operators, this signals growing competition to retrofit mixed fleets and brownfield sites, potentially lowering barriers to deploying autonomous haulage at scale.