Eight years underground: Six lessons from Agnico Eagle’s autonomous haulage journey at LaRonde LZ5

Since deploying autonomous underground loaders and haulage trucks in 2018, Agnico Eagle’s LaRonde Zone 5 (LZ5) operation in Quebec has developed one of Canada’s longest-running underground automation programs.

As more Canadian underground mines consider automation, LZ5’s experience shows that success depends on much more than buying autonomous equipment.

Using different manufacturers for loaders and haulage trucks can also create additional integration challenges.

At LZ5, Sandvik AutoMine Core Fleet software operates and optimizes the fleet, while onboard Sandvik navigation software enables autonomous operation.

Its experience demonstrates that productivity and safety benefits depend on much more than autonomous trucks and loaders.