What is the Côté Gold Project?

Located in northern Ontario as part of IAMGOLD’s mining operations, Côté Gold is an open-pit gold mine slated to have up to 18 years of potential mining life. What makes the Côté Gold Project so exciting, apart from the 10 billion dollars of GDP for the province of Ontario and the over 450 full-time jobs it will create during its operation, is its use of autonomous haul trucks from the very start of the project.

Toromont Cat is deploying to the Côté Gold Project 793F Cat Tier 4 autonomous trucks making it the first greenfield* mine in North America to be in operations with autonomous haulage. Toromont Cat and Caterpillar are proud to have delivered the first truck assembled onsite on schedule, despite challenges related to COVID and supply chain disruptions.

Cat® MineStar™ Technology: A Game Changer

Recently the Cat® MineStar™ Command solution, supported by Toromont Cat, passed the commissioning milestone, in July of 2022 and then began mining operations in January 2023 following extensive training in the second half of 2022.

Monitored from the control room at the Côté Gold Project using MineStar technology, Cat autonomous haul trucks are connected through a wireless network and operate in the open pit with consistent, near continuous operation. The autonomous trucks are supported by a number of Caterpillar, Toromont, and IAMGOLD personnel, including geologists, mining engineers, control room staff, pit supervisors and staffed equipment operators.

Safety First

So what are the benefits of autonomous hauling? Safety, for a start.

“Even the safest mine site still has hazardous conditions, but if a truck has no operator, it can enter those areas with no safety risk. A great example of this ability is the blast radius,” says Jagath Samaraweera, a commercial consultant for Caterpillar. “Truck operators typically stay out of the blast radius for safety reasons. Autonomous trucks don’t experience fatigue, either, which makes mining sites, and the people who work there, safer.”

Cat autonomous trucks will run, rain or shine, and to date have hauled over 5.5 billion tons of material without a single lost-time injury – to a person or moose. “I’ve even seen one on a site in Canada follow a family of moose down the road at a safe speed until they got out of the way,” Samaraweera recalls.

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A part of Toromont Cat team at the mine site.

What’s Next

Already operating on a 12-hour-a-day schedule, the Côté Gold mine will be going full gear 24-hour operations this summer.

Meanwhile, at the time of writing, the Toromont Cat team at Cote Gold stands 40 strong; in the coming months, that number will grow to over 80 as we set up a permanent shop and parts warehouse on the site to better serve the client and keep the operation running smoothly. More equipment is also on its way. We have started assembly of the first of two Cat 6060 twin electric mining front shovels - the first of the upgraded next generation shovel in the world.

With Caterpillar autonomous vehicles and decades of experience in the industry, Toromont Cat is ready to continue taking mining in Canada to a new era of sustainable development, improved safety, and technological innovation!

To learn more about Cat autonomous vehicle technology: