China's "intelligent mines" are getting rid of truck drivers and diesel fuel
Bullets:
China's first intelligent mine opened in Inner Mongolia, at a large open-pit coal mine.
The mining company deployed a fleet of one hundred fully autonomous electric trucks.
Huawei built a 5.5G network and designed algorithms specifically for open-pit coal mines, with localized maps. As a result, the smart trucks operate at 120% efficiency compared to human operators.
As more intelligent mines come online and electrify, enormous savings in fuel costs will be realized. Diesel fuel typically accounts for up to half of all operating costs for mining operations; mining trucks consume up to 100 liters (30 gallons) of fuel per hours, and overland fuel transport and storage in remote areas drive capital investment needs higher.
Report:
Good morning.
Some of the highest-paid blue-collar jobs in the world are in mining. A guy working the same job on a mining site will usually earn much more than on a construction site, for example. Here are truck driver salaries for mines in Alaska, for example. And the ones there may be low, given other headlines from Alaska. Big-rig drivers can earn over $150,000 a year in Alaska and Canada, because of the shortage of drivers.
The shortage of drivers in Alaska and Northern Canada, though, is because these jobs are hard jobs. They’re in remote locations, with lousy weather much of the year. There aren’t a lot of options for free time. And it’s also dangerous work—the icy conditions, the dangerous roads, and it’s a long way from a hospital.
Chinese companies are building intelligent mines, which mean that they’re getting rid of drivers, and replacing them with driverless trucks. And the driverless trucks are battery-powered, which means that the high diesel fuels costs go away. Yimin is a coal mine in Inner Mongolia—that’s a province of China, not the country. At its busiest times, Yimin had 300 trucks working 24/7, which means 1,200 drivers.
Inner Mongolia is as remote as it sounds, gets a lot of extreme weather, and so Yimin has trouble keeping drivers around. It’s dangerous and exhausting work that leads to burnout and health problems.
Recently the company deployed a fleet of 100 battery-powered, self-driving trucks. Huawei developed the self-driving features of the system, and installed a 5.5G network on the mining. Huawei built the AI systems for open-pit mining. So that’s the self-driving part, and these Huawei systems here at Yimin will replace, on these 100 vehicles, 400 full-time drivers.
There are other efficiencies that these smart vehicles enjoy. 20% more operational efficiency than trucks driven by people, and they can operate in extreme cold temperatures—minus 40 degrees. And Inner Mongolia does get that cold—temperatures can get to minus 48.
The trucks used at the mine are breaking records—the world’s largest payloads for autonomous electric trucks, fastest run speeds, and at the lowest operating temperatures. Here is how the Huawei system contributes to the 120% operating efficiency rating: the maps are updated in real time, and their algorithms can optimize routes and reduce waits.
The company eventually will replace its entire fleet of 300 vehicles with these, which will dramatically reduce their need for drivers. But the transition from diesel to electric will drive down costs even further. Fuel expenses are one the biggest cost drivers on mining sites—the fuel typically needs to be hauled in, overland, to remote areas. That’s expensive.
Then comes the problem of the trucks themselves. They just suck down a lot of fuel. Mining trucks burn up to 30 gallons of fuel per hour—that’s over 110 liters of diesel, every truck, every hour, 24 hours a day. For most mining operations, fuel is 30 to 50% of its total operating costs, and an entire fuel efficiency consulting industry that exists only to drive those costs down. Drivers need to be carefully trained to drive the trucks differently—avoid excessive idling, carefully track how the trucks are being driven, carefully budget fuel use, and deploy fuel management systems and data feeds.
Electricity isn’t free, but China makes its own electricity, whereas https://www.voronoiapp.com/energy/-Chinas-Crude-Oil-Imports-Reach-111-MbD-in-2024-Down-19-from-2023-3819All that goes away with electrified mines.
Consider the challenges, then, that we face in North America and Europe, and anywhere else we are talking about re-building or re-shoring our mining industries. Today’s news comes from a Chinese coal mine, but we should expect that Chinese companies are going to be doing the same in mining of their rare earth metals, or in the mining of anything else.
The proof of concept is right there—Huawei installs the 5G advanced system, then they bring in the trucks, and switch it on. A new mine in North America that does not have a contract with Huawei will need to recruit and pay drivers six figures. A new mine in Europe that doesn’t have a fleet of battery powered trucks will need to buy and transport and store thousands of gallons of fuel to use every day. All that is expensive, and drives up the costs of our mine production, and those costs need to be recovered later, through higher prices.
Resources and links:
How Fuel Inefficiencies Cost Mining Companies Millions
https://www.link2pump.com/fuel-inefficiencies-cost-mining
Digging Deeper: Tackling the affordability challenge in the mining industry with these three improvements
https://www.cummins.com/news/2020/02/10/digging-deeper-tackling-affordability-challenge-mining-industry-these-three
Fleet of 100 autonomous electric mining trucks deployed at Yimin mine
https://im-mining.com/2025/05/15/fleet-of-100-autonomous-electric-mining-trucks-deployed-at-yimin-mine/
5G Advanced powers world’s largest fleet of driverless coal mining trucks in China
https://totaltele.com/5g-advanced-powers-worlds-largest-fleet-of-driverless-coal-mining-trucks-in-china/
Chinese autonomous electric mining trucks get to work in Mongolia
https://newatlas.com/automotive/autonomous-coal-mining-electric-trucks/
Electrek, Autonomous electric haul truck fleet set to revolutionize mineral mining in China
https://electrek.co/2025/05/18/autonomous-electric-haul-truck-fleet-set-to-revolutionize-mineral-mining-in-china/
China’s first intelligent mine opens in Inner Mongolia
The future of mining: how China is upgrading traditional industry with driverless EVs
https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3312442/future-mining-how-china-upgrading-traditional-industry-driverless-evs
Truck driver salary in Red Dog Mine, AK
https://www.indeed.com/career/truck-driver/salaries/Red-Dog-Mine--AK
Yearly Salary of a Mining Haul Truck Driver
What Is the Average Mine Truck Driver Salary by State
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/What-Is-the-Average-Mine-Truck-Driver-Salary-by-State
Alaskan trucking fleets promise $150K driver salaries amid drilling boom
China's Crude Oil Imports Reach 11.1 Mb/D in 2024, Down 1.9% from 2023
https://www.voronoiapp.com/energy/-Chinas-Crude-Oil-Imports-Reach-111-MbD-in-2024-Down-19-from-2023-3819
Fascinating article. Clever use of automation and not being beholden to diesel fuel.
However, regarding battery powered trucks, the energy to make the batteries and charge them comes primarily from coal fired power plants in China.
The First Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed or RENEWED, only transformed.
It must be exciting covering "PROGRESS" and not having to dishonestly spin negatives as positives (cause it could have been worse) as all too much in the West deteriorates. Of course, the US has black-listed Huawei going so far to have its vassal, Canada, arrest one of its top Executives, in transit.
US Regs/sanctions made Huawei develop its own chips, just like they made Russian companies were forced to innovate faster to be able to assume the function of the gaps left by fleeing Western countries.
If there was an Academy Awards show for Industrial/business innovations, when multiple Chinese Industrial Execs go to the podium to humbly accept their awards, besides thanking their families for their support, they would be thanking the US hegemon and its vassals for the tough love.