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Utah Copper Mine Reopens as AI-Directed, Driverless Operation

The rollout signals a push to rebuild domestic copper capacity.

Overview

  • Mariana Minerals restarted production at the Copper One site in southeast Utah using an autonomy platform called MarianaOS to run drilling, hauling and inspections.
  • The mine’s hardware stack includes Sandvik autonomous drills, Pronto (Atoms) driverless haul trucks guided by cameras and satellite positioning, and Boston Dynamics’ Spot robots for site patrols.
  • MarianaOS ties the work together through MineOS for pit operations, PlantOS for the refinery and CapitalProjectOS for new builds, creating one system from rock blasting to copper output.
  • Mariana targets 50,000 tons of refined copper a year by 2030, with part of that coming from recycled scrap processed at the Utah facility.
  • The company says automation could cut refining costs by about 30% and mining costs by 40% to 50%, though those figures are early company estimates and not yet independently verified.