The Chinese mining truck manufacturer China Space Sanjiang Group (CSSG) last year displayed an 110 t autonomous truck it jointly developed with autonomy tech company Vipioneers at the 2019 World Conference on the VR Industry in Nanchang. The machine has now moved to a real operation, namely the Chengmenshan Copper Mine of Jiangxi Copper Group, as reported by news agency Xinhua. The unit has successfully loaded material from a kilometre away, dumped it on a wastepile according to a preset route, then returned safely.

Deputy Mine Director Lu Xiao says that under the conditions of a low latency, high speed, and widely-connected 5G network, the autonomous mining truck (and a remote controlled crawler dozer, part of the same project) realised real-time data interaction and real-time transmission and execution of commands, without worrying about signal interruption.

Lu Xiao said that through the construction of smart mines, production efficiency can be achieved and organisation can be streamlined. “Based on our experience of autonomous mining trucks and remote-controlled bulldozers, we are continuing to promote the unmanned operation of mining equipment such as drilling rigs and excavators, and actively restructuring the production organisation system to create a more ‘smart’ mine.”

In addition to the Chengmenshan Copper Mine, Jiangxi Copper Group also promotes intelligent mining in multiple mines such as Dexing Copper Mine, integrating big data technology into the entire industrial chain, and comprehensively promotes management innovation, technological innovation, and product innovation, said the Xinhua report.