Rio Tinto and General Electric today announced that they are working together on two key strategic technology projects, Rio Tinto’s ‘Mine of the Future™^’ and GE’s ‘Ecomagination’”, to develop the most energy efficient and ecologically friendly solutions to support the future of mining.

Combining GE’s expertise in environmental technologies with Rio Tinto’s deep mining knowledge creates a world-class platform to help forge the solutions required for the future of mining and in doing so should deliver significant value to all stakeholders. GE and Rio Tinto’s technology teams will work together to identify areas where the development and introduction of GE’s products and services will address the challenges of the future of mining.

Rio Tinto’s chief executive Tom Albanese launched his vision for the ‘mine of the future’ earlier this year, revealing plans for driverless trains to carry iron ore on most of the 1,300 kilometres of track in Western Australia, a driverless ‘intelligent’ truck fleet for Rio Tinto’s mines there and a Remote Operations Centre for the Pilbara mine operations 1,300 kilometres away at a new centre in Perth.

Today’s announcement builds on this to accelerate development of a comprehensive package of future technologies for mining, working with world leaders in technology.

Tom Albanese said: “Rio Tinto and General Electric share the same values with respect to energy conservation and care for the environment.