EACON hits autonomous haulage milestone in Australia

Fortescue (ASX: FMG) has commenced construction at its first operational wind development. the Nullagine wind project, in the Pilbara, WA.

Liebherr-Australia’s fabrication team sets new recordIn December, Liebherr-Australia set a new annual production benchmark when its fabrication team completed its 50th mining excavator bucket for 2025.Completed at the company’s Adelaide, South Australia facility, the achievement marks a 16% increase on the 43 buckets fabricated in 2024.Liebherr-Australia manufactures buckets for its comprehensive range of mining excavators entirely in-house — enabling it to deliver purpose-built attachment solutions engineered specifically for Australian mining conditions, while maintaining full control over quality, safety and delivery timelines.Liebherr-Australia mining fabrication manage Steve Smith says what the Adelaide team’s achievement is outstanding.“As well as setting new manufacturing benchmarks, the team also achieved the highest possible result in our internal global audit for excellence in fabrication and welding, compliance with Liebherr global requirements and rigorous quality standards,” he said.“This outcome reflects the team’s strong governance, technical rigour and commitment to Liebherr’s global quality standards.”Building these 50 buckets involved more than 60 employees across the fabrication team putting in a collective 92,600 productive hours, highlighting both the scale of output required to meet customer demand and the depth of expertise across the workforce.Automated welding technology has been implemented at the Adelaide facility in the form of a collaborative robot, or ‘cobot’, which supports the fabrication team with high precision welding tasks, improving consistency in the welding process while also reducing reliance on manual welding hours.With the introduction of this technology, welding speeds at the Adelaide facility are now six times faster, which saved more than 2000 labour hours in 2025 — the same time it takes to fabricate an entirely new R 9600 bucket.“This investment strengthens Liebherr-Australia’s ability to deliver high-quality attachments at scale, while upholding rigorous quality standards, supporting workforce safety and building long-term fabrication capability,” Mr Smith said.

The Queensland Government is investing $500,000 to support the women in resources: empowering development (WIRED) pilot program.The program, delivered by the Queensland Resources Council (QRC), focuses on upskilling and reskilling women into advanced site-based roles to strengthen Queensland’s resources workforce and support more women into higher-skilled operator and technician roles across the state.The WIRED program will deliver targeted training for roles including machinery operators, plant technicians and site supervisors while supporting women transitioning into higher-level operator and technician roles.Early engagement across the sector has commenced, with the program expected to launch in mid-2026.Queensland Finance, Trade, Employment and Training Minister Ros Bates says the investment is about backing a sector that drives jobs and regional growth.“We are backing one of Queensland’s economic powerhouses by delivering the skilled workforce it needs to keep growing,” she said.“We are making sure women have clear, practical pathways into higher-skilled, higher-paid roles on site.“When you expand opportunities in a $44b industry, you strengthen the entire economy.”In the Australian resources sector, women now represent a larger portion of roles but there is still major room for growth with the percentage of women holding roles in the mining sector fluctuating between 22 – 23% since 2024, according to the Federal Government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).QRC chief executive Janette Hewson says WIRED is about enabling and retaining women in technician and operator roles to move into site-based leadership roles.“Our vision is an industry where women with technical skills have a clear pathway to more senior roles and can thrive in these roles long-term,” she said.“By supporting women who are working onsite, we create a workplace culture where everyone can thrive.”

Autonomous copper refining at Olympic Dam BHP (ASX: BHP) is driving safety in copper refining at its Olympic Dam refinery in South Australia with a fully enclosed and automated robotic cathode stripping machine.Cathode stripping is a crucial step in the copper refining process, involving the removal of thin sheets of nearly pure copper (known as cathode) from large metal plates after refining.BHP’s original cathode stripping machine required frequent manual intervention, exposing operators to potential hazards including crush injuries, line-of-fire incidents and physical strain. Beyond safety concerns, the physically demanding nature of the work also limited participation, hampering efforts to build a more inclusive workforce.To address these challenges, a team of frontline workers and engineers from the refinery collaborated with project partners to develop and implement a safer and more inclusive approach.The team developed a fully enclosed and automated robotic cathode stripping machine, which uses precision automation to strip and process cathodes autonomously, to eliminate operator exposure to potential hazardous conditions — improving equipment reliability and reducing downtime caused by copper jams.Introducing an automated solution has also expanded the pool of candidates for operator roles, contributing to making Olympic Dam operations more inclusive, with women being strongly represented among qualified operators.The project won the Safety, Security and Emergency Management category at BHP’s 2025 Health, Safety, Environment and Community Awards for its reflection of the company’s culture of continuous improvement and collaboration — where frontline teams, engineers and partners come together to deliver solutions that make a tangible difference to how the company operates.