On May 15, XCMG successfully delivered 100 ZNK95 pure electric unmanned mining trucks to Huaneng Yimin open-pit coal mine and officially put them into operation. It is worth noting that this is also the world’s first batch delivery project of 100 cockpit-free mining trucks.
In recent years, with the development of mining towards green and intelligent development, unmanned mining trucks have been vigorously promoted, and various unmanned mining truck models have also achieved the development from “transformation” and “manufacturing” to “creation”, especially “cab-free” is becoming the mainstream of positive design in the industry. Compared with mining trucks with cabs, this cockpit-free design that breaks through the traditional unmanned mining truck product form in the industry maximizes the transportation space of mining trucks and is more in line with the unmanned operation requirements and transportation function requirements of “unmanned mining trucks”.
So far, many companies around the world, including Komatsu, Scania, Volvo, Boonray, XCMG, Waytous, Rock-AI, Yuexin Intelligent, and CIDI, have released dozens of cockpit-free unmanned mining trucks, which have been put into practical use in more than ten mines and have achieved a series of results.
Hami Dananhu No. 2 Mine of CHN ENERGY Guoshen Company
In October 2023, Rock-AI released its independently developed Alpha90 open-pit mine cab-free transport robot, which uses XCMG’s XGA90 axle, frame and power drive system, innovatively removes the traditional cockpit, and realizes full-line control, unmanned and modular design.
The vehicle has currently been used in the Hami Dananhu No. 2 open-pit coal mine of the CHN ENERGY Guoshen Company, completing the first field application of a cockpit-free transport robot for open-pit mines in China.
At the beginning of 2025, the “Research and Application of Key Technologies for Collaborative Operation of Remotely Controlled Excavators and Unmanned Wide-Body Trucks” Project, led by Guoshen Company, was jointly developed with CCTEG and Rock-AI and passed the appraisal of China National Coal Association. It is understood that the project has been put into operation at the mining and dispatching yard of the Dananhu No. 2 Mine of Guoshen Hami Coal and Electricity Company, with a total of 22 intelligent unmanned vehicles and 3 remote-controlled excavators, realizing the full-process transportation operations of loading, transportation and unloading of 4 groups.
As of the end of this March, Alpha90 has achieved 7×24 hours of continuous operation for more than 500 days in the open-pit coal mine.
Ordos Tengyuan Coal Mine
In May 2023, the mine new energy intelligent transport robot “CarMo” jointly developed by the Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Sciences, the International Advanced Technology Application Promotion Center, the Inner Mongolia Research Institute of China University of Mining & Technology-Beijing, and Waytous was officially released in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, and unmanned grouping was carried out in Tengyuan Coal, Ordos City.
China Railway Manglai Open-pit Coal Mine
On July 21, 2021, Zhonggong Jihua Heavy Industry (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. released the CIHIC-150T unmanned intelligent mining dump truck. The vehicle is 5.4 meters high, 13 meters long, and 4.5 meters wide, weighs 110 tons and has a load capacity of 150 tons. It is powered by new energy and equipped with a large electronic screen that displays real-time data such as voltage, speed, load, and feedback power. All operations are completed on a remote control console a few hundred meters away.
So far, the CIHIC fifth-generation 150-ton new energy unmanned mining dump truck has been implemented in many large coal mines, metal mining areas, large water conservancy projects, and large civil engineering projects, including China Railway Manglai Open-pit Coal Mine and Mengxin Group.
Xiong’an New Area Regulating Reservoir Aggregate Transportation Project of South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route
On November 15, 2020, Yuexin Intelligent’s pure electric unmanned bidirectional mining truck tailored for Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 8 Co., Ltd. was officially delivered to the Xiong’an project and stationed at the site of the aggregate processing system of the Xiong’an Regulating Reservoir of the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route.
The project is designed to produce 25 million tons per year. In response to the actual needs of informatization and intelligence in the production of aggregate processing systems, unmanned two-way mining trucks are introduced to improve the degree of automation of business management, reduce personnel occupation, reduce labor costs, and improve work efficiency.
CMOC Luanchuan Mine Project
As a world-renowned international mining group, CMOC is one of the top five molybdenum producers in the world and one of the largest tungsten producers in the world. In 2019, Yuexin Intelligent implemented unmanned transformation of the Sandaozhuang Mine of CMOC in Luanchuan County and provided a 5G unmanned smart mine solution. A total of 120 unmanned mining trucks, 32 excavators (remote control) and other equipment have been invested, including unmanned two-way mining trucks.
This is also Yuexin Intelligent’s first zero-carbon 5G smart mine. In June 2021, Yuexin Intelligent’s fourth-generation “unmanned two-way pure electric mining truck” was implemented and applied here.
CMOC operation site
Compared with traditional mining trucks, Yuexin’s fourth-generation unmanned pure electric mining trucks have eliminated the cab, which can effectively increase the carrying capacity by 20%; bidirectional driving does not require U-turns, which improves safety while greatly shortening the transportation cycle and reducing transportation costs by about 15%.
