Leading Chinese equipment OEM XCMG will soon start operating the largest fleet of high tonnage autonomous rigid mining trucks in the country. The first automation ready XDE240 220 t trucks recently started arriving at the Xiwan coal mine in Shaanxi province, being developed by Shaanxi Shenyan Coal, part of China’s coal mining giant China Energy Investment Corporation (CEIC, also known as CHN Energy, created from the merger of China Guodian Corporation and Shenhua Group in 2017). The trucks will be loaded by Taiyuan Heavy Industry (TYHI) WK-35 65 t payload electric rope shovels.

The fleet consists of 32 220 t XDE240 trucks, equipped with MTU 16V4000C23R 2,500 hp engines and Wabtec AC drives. IM understands that while XCMG has supplied the trucks with an automation interface, the tender for a third party supplier to supply the unmanned technology was separately put out to bid by CEIC in September and was recently won by CRRC-owned company Zhuzhou National Engineering Research Center of Converters. CRRC is a huge company best known for its rail equipment and technology but which also makes mining equipment and supplies mining technology – through CRRC Yongji it helped develop an FCEV mining truck with engine group Weichai while CRRC Datong started building its own electric drive CR240E mining haul trucks recently.