Recently, Beijing Soly Technology Co Ltd worked with China Telecom and customer Jinchuan Group’s Longshou nickel mine to successfully integrate the a driverless electric rail haulage system with a new 5G communication technology.

Jinchuan Group’s Longshou mine is in Gansu Province, and this unmanned system for mined nickel ore haulage locomotives, is the first time that Beijing Soly has implemented a project like this using a 5G network, though it has had a number of successful driverless mine rail system projects including the Yunnan Pulang copper mine.

The company said the project is based on the self-developed self-driving system of electric locomotives developed by Beijing Soly, running on China Telecom’s powerful 5G platform, and making full use of 5G communications ability to handle a large data volume with low latency. 5G has realised the unmanned driving and intelligent scheduling of the electric locomotives in a high-speed communication mode, and has comprehensively improved the stability and reliability of the system.

The operation of the electric locomotive unmanned driving system in Longshou mine has completely changed the transportation mode at 1703 level; improving the transportation capacity of the entire system; reducing the number of on-site operators, reducing personnel safety risks, and improving safety management and control levels; the rail transportation automation and intelligent application capabilities have laid the foundation for the construction of a true “smart mine” at Longshou, says Beijing Soly.