Unmanned mining vehicles shuttle through open-pit coal mines in Xinjiang

In the Gobi Desert of the Zhundong Coalfield in Xinjiang at an altitude of 580 meters, in the 200-meter-deep terraced mine, white, green, and yellow dots move on each layer. These dots are like belts on a conveyor, always appearing in the same position. Every time they move back and forth, they can bring hundreds of thousands of yuan in revenue to the mining company.

These dots are unmanned mining vehicles. They will follow the designated path and find excavators in the coal mining area and stripping area to load coal or earth and stone. After loading, they will run to the crushing station to unload coal, or to the backfill area to dump earth and stone.

Before the unmanned mining vehicles were put into operation, the open-pit coal mines mainly built such an assembly line through manual management: the excavator master manually swung the bucket to summon the mining vehicle, and then long-pressed the horn to remind the mining vehicle driver that it was full.

According to the “Report on the Development of Unmanned Driving Technology Application in Open-pit Coal Mines” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) released by the China Coal Industry Association, as of September 2024, more than 1,500 unmanned mining vehicles have been running in open-pit coal mines across the country. Calculated at a price of 2 million to 3 million yuan per vehicle, the market space is about 4.5 billion yuan. The “Report” predicts that by 2026, the number of unmanned mining trucks in open-pit coal mines will reach 10,000.

Some of China’s unmanned mining trucks come from an autonomous driving company, Easy Control Intelligent Driving. According to the report, the current market share of Easy Control Intelligent Driving’s unmanned mining trucks is about 42.5%.

Easy Control Intelligent Driving was officially established in May 2018, focusing on L4 level unmanned driving and mining application scenarios. By the end of 2024, Easy Control Intelligent Driving’s unmanned mining trucks have entered more than 20 open-pit mines, with more than 1,000 vehicles in operation and a cumulative mileage of more than 30 million kilometers.

Zhang Lei, chairman of Easy Control Intelligent Driving, was once the head of commercial vehicle unmanned driving research and development. Later, he was deeply involved in the mining industry, understood the needs of the mining area, and worked with the team to promote Easy Control Intelligent Driving to target unmanned driving applications in mining areas.

In recent years, driven by both policies and markets, the construction of smart mines has become a theme in the mining industry. However, not every mining company has the ability to pay for intelligent solutions.

Therefore, if you want to quickly promote the construction of smart mines, it is best to find coal mines that are relatively “not short of money” and have clear policy guidance. In addition, it is best to choose to mine minerals with high economic value, because the greatest economic benefit of intelligent transformation lies in achieving 24-hour uninterrupted operation. The higher the economic value of mining per unit time, the more cost-effective it is.

Open-pit coal mines have such characteristics. On the one hand, coal prices have been at historical highs in the past few years. In 2022, international coal prices rose rapidly. The policy level has successively issued documents such as “Announcement on Clarifying the Price Gouging Behavior of Operators in the Coal Field” and “2023 Power Coal Medium- and Long-Term Contract Signing and Performance Work Plan” to control coal prices. In 2023 and 2024, coal continued to be high-priced; on the other hand, open-pit coal mines generally have low mining difficulty and good coal quality. For example, the Xinjiang Zhundong coalfield is mainly composed of long flame coal, non-sticky coal and weak sticky coal.

“Adapting” to coal mines

When the unmanned mining trucks were first promoted, the Easy Control Intelligent Driving team was stationed on site in the mining area for long-term research and development.

Unlike scenarios such as port transportation, trunk logistics and even road driving, if autonomous driving wants to run in mines, it must be “one mine, one policy”.

This is because mining companies have strict management regulations for vehicles operating in mines, such as blasting time and transportation management regulations in mines. For example, if the speed limit in the mine is 30 kilometers per hour, vehicles can only travel at this speed. “Our unmanned mining trucks must be limited to 3 kilometers per hour when dumping soil, because the vehicle weighs hundreds of tons and the geological conditions of the dumping ground are extremely unstable. The speed must be slowed down, otherwise accidents are likely to occur.” Yikong Zhijia’s unmanned driving dispatcher gave an example.

According to him, open-pit coal mines are divided into stripping, coal mining and other operating departments, and each operating department has a dedicated person responsible for the management of the corresponding unmanned mining trucks.

Taking the most typical coal mining operation scene in open-pit coal mines as an example, because the roads left by the coal seams are very narrow and vehicles are required to quickly fill in, the technical “stuck points” of unmanned mining trucks are more.

Because open-pit coal mines mostly travel on dirt roads and the body is too heavy, it is easy to cause the dirt roads to become bumpy. Yikong Zhijia has developed the “balanced rolling” technology specifically. This technology enables unmanned mining trucks to automatically repair soil pits and improve road conditions during travel.

In addition, unmanned mining trucks need to work in coordination with other mechanical equipment. For example, when the excavator is digging, the unmanned mining truck needs to be parked at a specific point and complete the vehicle change within the specified time. In addition, vehicles such as command vehicles and sprinkler trucks that appear on the road also need to be identified and avoided.

“These are the basis for the large-scale application of unmanned mining trucks in mining areas. Only by coordinating with the production equipment in the mining area can unmanned transportation become a real productivity and ensure efficient and safe production in the mining area.” The mine area manager said.

At this stage, the core selling point of unmanned mining trucks is the implementation capability of the solution. The implementation capability means solving more production management problems for the mine and creating safer and more efficient management and production methods with less manpower and material resources.

According to Lin Qiao, vice president of Easy Control Intelligent Driving, if the original 200 vehicles in the mining area were to operate in compliance, at least three shifts of drivers would be required to work in shifts, and at least 800 people would be needed to operate them. The mine also had to bear the drivers’ food, accommodation, travel costs and personal safety issues. With the support of unmanned driving technology, only more than 100 people are needed to achieve normalized management of more than 200 vehicles.

What Easy Control Intelligent Driving wants to do is the “solution” for unmanned transportation, that is, to cooperate with mining engineering companies or mining companies to customize unmanned mining trucks according to their needs. When the mining trucks are produced, they will cooperate with mining truck companies to install the main laser radar, camera, millimeter wave radar, wire control device, etc., and then Easy Control Intelligent Driving will be responsible for technical delivery.

For mining companies, the introduction of Easy Control Intelligent Driving’s unmanned mining trucks is equivalent to introducing a set of intelligent systems to the mines. “For example, every excavator master will have an APP in his hand, and call our unmanned mining trucks through the APP.” said the on-site operation and maintenance personnel of the Yikong Intelligent Driving mining area.

The oil-electric hybrid unmanned mining truck fleet that the reporter saw at the coal mine site was produced by two main manufacturers, Tongli Heavy Industry and Lingong Heavy Machinery. According to the requirements of the mine and the engineering company, the unmanned driving wire control platform of Easy Control Intelligent Driving can also adapt to a variety of models such as pure oil vehicles and pure electric vehicles. “Now the mining area prefers pure electric vehicles, which can meet the requirements of new energy equipment and energy conservation and emission reduction in the mining area.” The on-site operation and maintenance personnel further stated.

In addition, Easy Control Intelligent Driving will also provide mines with corresponding facility construction plan suggestions, such as 5G networks, charging stations, etc. According to the actual application situation, the unmanned mining truck can be deployed in as fast as two days. If the mine itself lacks the corresponding infrastructure, it will take about 1 to 3 months.

Smart mines

In April 2024, the State Administration of Work Safety and other seven departments jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Deepening the Construction of Intelligent Mines and Promoting the Safety Development of Mines”, proposing that by 2026, a complete standard system for intelligent mines should be established to promote the integration and interoperability of mine data; the proportion of intelligent production capacity in coal mines nationwide should be no less than 60%, the proportion of intelligent working faces should be no less than 30%, and the normal operation rate of intelligent working faces should be no less than 80%.

According to Luoyang Molybdenum, the mining industry is currently facing problems such as increased resource mining depth, shortage of mining talents, rising labor costs, and increasingly stringent safety and environmental protection requirements.

In 2023, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Energy Bureau and the Inner Mongolia Bureau of the State Administration of Work Safety issued the “Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Coal Mine Intelligent Construction Evaluation and Acceptance Measures (Trial)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”), proposing that the mining and excavation working faces of intelligent coal mines should be operated by few or no people, and the fixed positions of the main production systems should be unmanned and remotely controlled. The “Measures” apply to all production and construction coal mines in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region except for the national intelligent demonstration coal mines.

According to the Inner Mongolia Daily, as of October 2024, there are 255 intelligent mining faces in operation in Inner Mongolia, accounting for about 50%, and 344 unmanned mining trucks have been promoted and applied. After the intelligent construction and transformation, the number of underground workers has been reduced by more than 6,000, a reduction of nearly 20%.

According to Luoyang Molybdenum, in the short term, intelligence is mainly reflected in safety benefits, and the economic benefits are not significant. New intelligent, information technology and equipment require professional operation and maintenance personnel, which will increase the operation and maintenance costs for a period of time.

Lin Qiao believes that in the construction of intelligent mines, unmanned driving technology is not a single transportation technology tool, but a fulcrum that runs through the entire chain of mining and transportation, and becomes the connector and booster of the entire mine intelligent system. It is currently in a critical stage of transition from “single point breakthrough” to “full-domain collaboration”.

“At present, Yikong Intelligent Driving’s capabilities are unable to cover so many product lines. Although these products are being developed by relevant companies, they have not yet been promoted on a large scale due to insufficient operating precision. At present, unmanned mining trucks are the smart mining equipment that is gaining popularity at the fastest pace at this stage.” said the on-site dispatcher of Yikong Intelligent Driving.