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Sylvia Ma

In north China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, home to the country’s largest coal reserves, a vast open-pit mine cuts deep into the earth, shrouded in clouds of dust. Winters here are long and brutal, with temperatures plunging to as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit).
In older, more traditional days, hundreds of truck drivers, bundled in heavy winter gear, had to brave icy roads and the risk of frostbite as they hauled loads through the pit. When dense fog and snow rolled in, visibility could fall so low that drivers had to stop work for fear of a fatal crash.
Today, however, an observer at the edge of the same pit could see a convoy of electric mining trucks rumble deep into the mine. A closer look would reveal something remarkable: no one behind the wheel.
This is the scene in Yimin – one of the five largest open-cast coal mines in China – which launched the world’s first large-scale fleet of cabless, electric autonomous mining trucks in May last year.
More than a year on, the performance of the 100-vehicle fleet offers a chance to assess how the technology has fared beyond the pilot stage – and whether it can be scaled up further to help upgrade China’s traditional energy sector.
“The autonomous electric trucks have helped us cut operating costs, improve safety and increase efficiency,” said Zhao Yaozhong, deputy manager for technology at the mine.
Beyond easing recruitment difficulties caused by harsh working conditions, the deployment has – more importantly – improved safety by reducing the scope for human error, analysts and industry insiders said. This consideration takes on particular importance amid renewed scrutiny of mine safety following a spate of recent accidents.
The trucks don’t need to eat or rest, so they can work around the clock, while we just monitor the health of the equipment
Zhao Yaozhong, deputy mine manager for technology at Yimin
Custom-built by heavy machinery maker Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group to withstand extreme cold, the self-driving trucks operate over a 5G network and Huawei Technologies’ cloud-based AI dispatching system, allowing them to navigate the mine and optimise routes in real time, according to the companies.
Automated swapping stations replace depleted batteries in about six minutes, while a dedicated solar microgrid supplies electricity, allowing the fleet to achieve zero-carbon status and run constantly.
“The trucks don’t need to eat or rest, so they can work around the clock, while we just monitor the health of the equipment,” Zhao said.
He noted that many mining accidents over the years had been linked to human factors, such as emotions or failures to follow operating procedures. Zhao contrasted this with the autonomous trucks, which he said executed commands precisely once given instructions to haul coal or overburden – the layer of rock and dirt covering a mineral deposit.
Coal mine safety has fallen back under the regulatory microscope in China following a gas explosion in May at the Liushenyu Coal Mine in Shanxi province. The blast killed 82 people, making it the deadliest coal mine disaster in more than a decade.
Aside from safety, the autonomous solution also offered cost savings, Zhao said, remaining cheaper to operate than conventionally driven trucks even after factoring upfront investments in the vehicles, battery-swapping stations and 5G cloud platform, as well as maintenance costs.
The savings have come mainly from lower labour and fuel costs, with the deployment replacing a crew of nearly 270 truck drivers with a smaller maintenance and support team – equivalent to about 220 fewer positions – and saving an estimated 13,300 tonnes of diesel.
Zhao said operating costs for the autonomous trucks were about 6.5 yuan (US$0.97) per cubic metre for hauling coal and overburden, compared with roughly 12 to 14 yuan per cubic metre for conventional haul trucks – almost half the cost.
Since the fleet was deployed in May last year, it has hauled about 28 million cubic metres (988.8 million cubic feet), saving nearly 200 million yuan (US$29.8 million) in operating costs, he added.
Coal has long been the backbone of China’s energy system, powering the country’s rapid industrialisation and still accounting for more than half of its energy consumption. Its dominant role has also helped cushion China from this year’s global energy shock, which saw a rapid increase in oil prices triggered by the US-Israel war with Iran.

Wang Hongzhi, head of the National Energy Administration (NEA), said at a press conference in June that “coal is our biggest source of confidence in maintaining a stable energy supply”, saying China should build up its major coal production bases in line with its national circumstances.
Meanwhile, upgrading and transforming the traditional energy sector has also become part of Beijing’s broader energy strategy.
A blueprint released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the NEA for China’s “new energy system” during the period covered by the country’s 15th five-year plan called for a “modern coal supply chain”, with wider adoption of green mining practices and the development of smart mines tailored to local conditions.
In another blueprint intended specifically for the coal industry over the period, the two agencies set a target to further advance smart mining across the sector and raise the share of production capacity at smart mines to 75 per cent by 2030.
Analysts from Citic Securities said regulators’ focus on ensuring a safe and stable coal supply amid energy security concerns was driving smart mining, which could also help address labour shortages and cut costs for coal companies.
“The industry’s development is therefore driven not only by central policy coordination and local development plans, but also by coal companies’ own willingness to upgrade,” the analysts said in a report on smart mining last year.
They estimated that smart upgrades could reduce mine staffing by 20 to 30 per cent, with the investment potentially paying for itself in about seven to eight years on labour savings alone.
Since its deployment in May 2025, the Yimin fleet has moved beyond the pilot phase, taking on more demanding operations as the mine prepares to add 200 more trucks by the end of this year.
Initially used to haul topsoil and rock on the surface, the trucks began hauling coal in November, Zhao said. The mine also relocated its battery-swapping stations into the pit to test whether the trucks could navigate more challenging terrain, such as the confined spaces of the coal-preparation plant.


“We need to verify the system’s stability, because we plan to deploy 200 more trucks by the end of this year,” he said.
For Yimin, the experience suggested that technology was no longer the main barrier to wider adoption. But replicating the model across China’s coal mines was another question, with differences in geology, infrastructure and power supply likely to determine how quickly it can scale.
“The technology behind autonomous electric mining trucks is ready for nationwide deployment, but the biggest challenge is whether individual mines have enough power infrastructure to support them,” Zhao said.
Yimin, China’s first coal-and-power integrated project, has an advantage in electricity supply, with the mine able to draw power directly from the affiliated Yimin power plant.
“For other mines, such as those in [the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region], the biggest issue is whether they have enough power supply,” he noted, adding that government efforts to encourage mines to develop microgrids combining solar and wind power with energy storage could offer a potential solution.
Developing smart microgrids in mining areas that coordinate power generation, grids, electricity demand and energy storage is also listed in the coal industry’s five-year plan, which calls for the integrated development and operation of solar and wind power, coal-mine gas generation, energy storage and smart control systems.
According to the Citic Securities analysts, autonomous trucks at open-pit mines and mining robots for underground operations were among the two most mature applications combining artificial intelligence with mining hardware in China, while home-grown large language models for mining provided the technological foundation for such integration.
“We expect … mining-specific large models to incorporate generative AI, further enhancing data analysis and decision-making capabilities while improving safety and energy efficiency in mining operations,” the analysts said.


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The deployment of self-driving vehicles, now past the pilot stage, has improved safety, efficiency and operating costs, mine manager says


The deployment of self-driving vehicles, now past the pilot stage, has improved safety, efficiency and operating costs, mine manager says.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The deployment of self-driving vehicles, now past the pilot stage, has improved safety, efficiency and operating costs, mine manager says

The deployment of self-driving vehicles, now past the pilot stage, has improved safety, efficiency and operating costs, mine manager says