Mining giant BHP Billiton says its new remote operations centre and trial of driverless trucks will boost productivity without sacrificing jobs.

The centre in Perth provides a real-time view of the company’s entire Pilbara iron ore operations, including plants, trains and ports located thousands of kilometres away.

BHP president of iron ore Jimmy Wilson opened the Integrated Remote Operations Centre (IROC) on Tuesday, six months after it began operating.

The IROC is central to BHP’s plans to produce 220 million tonnes of iron ore per annum.

Mr Wilson said BHP was also examining the viability of using driverless trucks, in line with rival Rio Tinto.

“There’s a full suite of automation options that we’re looking at and we’re progressing along that line as we see those opportunities, so IROC is our first cab off the rank,” Mr Wilson told reporters.

“We’re getting a trial running now and we’ll have a number of trucks operating at our Jimblebar mine as we ramp that up and from there we’ll see how we go.”

Mr Wilson conceded that Rio Tinto, the world’s second biggest iron ore miner, was ahead of BHP Billiton on driverless truck technology.

“I’m not sure this is the only differentiator in business,” he said.

“We look at the overall opportunity suite that presents itself to us.”

Following the opening of the IROC, productivity improvements would occur through extra tonnes shipped rather than a reduction in staff numbers, he said.

“This is about integrating all these processes across the entire business and leveraging more volume through that infrastructure.”

Reducing reliance on contractors and bringing staff back in-house had ultimately helped to boost iron ore volumes, he said.

IROC is staffed by 60 to 70 people, 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

Rio Tinto’s chief executive Sam Walsh is credited with introducing Rio’s famed automated mining systems, including driverless trucks and other equipment that is controlled in Perth.