Automation: "Fortescue’s Autonomous Truck Fleet Hits One Billion Tonnes Hauled"

As noted in the intro to February's "You Want Autonomous Vehicles? The Mining Industry Is Already Going to Level 5" 
The $200,000 Australian mining truck driving jobs have gone the way of the $180,000 Norwegian oil rig salaries...

Although the company says no one has been forced out of a job I can't imagine any other position that pays like the heavy equipment operator jobs pay.

From Australian Mining, September 13:

Fortescue Metals Group’s fleet of autonomous haul trucks in the Pilbara has surpassed the one billion tonne milestone of material moved, covering 33.5 million kilometres in the process.

The company claims there has been “no forced redundancies” as the autonomous truck program has expanded since it was launched in 2012.

Fortescue first deployed Caterpillar’s autonomous haulage technology (AHS) at the Solomon Hub operations, making it the first company in the world to do so on a commercial scale.
The company has since added a fleet to the Chichester Hub, with a total of 137 autonomous trucks now in operation.

Fortescue will convert a further 175 trucks to autonomous technology by mid-next year and become the world’s first iron ore company to have a fully autonomous haulage operation.
Chief executive officer Elizabeth Gaines described the milestone as “significant” for Fortescue....MORE

Fortescue joins Rio Tinto who passed the tonnage hauled mark in January 2018.

Via International Mining
Rio Tinto’s autonomous haul trucks hit one billion tonne milestone

Related:
Rio Tinto's Australian Autonomous Train Is Being Called The "World's Largest Robot" (RIO)
Mining Technologies For the Mines of the Future