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The announcement comes as Newmont delivered the gold industry’s first Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) fleet at the operation, comprised of 36 trucks, for a total investment of $150 million.

The company said that during commissioning Boddington’s autonomous haulage system, it faced several challenges. The issues included unusually severe weather and heavy rainfall, shovel reliability and operational delays associated with managing bench hygiene as mining moves into deeper sections of the pit.

Newmont says that a result of the combination of factors Boddington has delivered lower ex-pit tonnes than expected.

“The record implementation of this project is a tremendous example of Newmont’s trademark ability to set and achieve ambitious goals,” CEO Tom Palmer said in the statement. “Today’s AHS commissioning is (…) an important milestone for the company and the industry as a whole.”

The mine, Western Australia’s largest gold producer, yielded 670,000 ounces of and 56 million pounds of copper last year.