In recent years, driverless cars have attracted much attention from all walks of life. On the one hand, there is a surge in the listing of driverless car companies, and on the other hand, the commercial application progress is accelerating. In the process of promoting commercial application, open-pit mines are considered to be one of the most representative scenarios.
According to the “Development Report on the Application of Unmanned Driving Technology in Open-pit Coal Mines” released by the China Coal Industry Association, the number of unmanned mining trucks in open-pit coal mines is expected to reach 2,500 in 2024, an increase of more than 120% from 1,131 in 2023. 2024 has become the first year for the commercialization of unmanned driving in China’s open-pit mines.
A few years ago, the domestic unmanned mining industry had set off a wave of financing. However, at that time, most companies in the industry focused on technology research and development and had not yet formed large-scale commercial implementation.
In 2024, China’s unmanned mining will usher in the first year of commercialization. In terms of the number of vehicles, the number of unmanned mining trucks in open-pit coal mines alone has reached 2,500, a 120% increase from 2023. So far, in the eyes of miners, unmanned mining is no longer a demo for testing, but has become an important tool for real productivity and intelligent transformation; in the unmanned driving track, everyone’s inherent cognition of small tracks and small scenes in mining scenes is also changing. The mining scene has become one of the first scenes to be implemented on a large scale and truly solve the difficulties and pain points of the scene. In this scene, everyone has truly seen the concrete value of unmanned mining.
At the same time, traditional open-pit coal mine production faces difficulties and pain points such as safety production, difficulty in recruiting workers, and high labor costs. Intelligent transformation is an inevitable trend. Unmanned driving in open-pit mines is characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, and is a typical new quality productivity.
According to incomplete statistics, since 2020, the national and local governments have issued more than 20 policies, regulations and related documents to promote the development and application of unmanned driving technology in mines. Therefore, unmanned driving has the underlying support and market demand for large-scale development.
The reason why unmanned driving in mines will achieve leapfrog development in 2024 is mainly because it solves the three major pain points of safe operation, continuous and efficient operation, and cost reduction. At the same time, the large-scale application of unmanned driving has promoted the rethinking of the top-level design of the traditional mining industry, such as the accelerated introduction of policies and regulations, the establishment of intelligent standards, the adjustment of mine management standards, and the re-planning of talent team building. At the same time, unmanned driving in mines has also played a role in leading the intelligent transformation of the entire mine.
At present, there are relatively few unmanned mining trucks overseas, and the technology providers are mainly OEMs (Carter and Komatsu account for more than 90%). In China, there are about 2,000 mining vehicles in use, with orders for about 2,500 vehicles, mainly dominated by technology companies, with a high degree of concentration. The top three companies account for nearly 80%, and fully unmanned accounts for about 55.3%. In terms of energy type, extended-range is the main type, and it is expected that pure electric will account for more than 30% in 2025; in terms of tonnage, 90-100 tons is the mainstream, because this tonnage can take into account new energy, localization, cost and transportation efficiency.
From the perspective of domestic regional distribution, the application of driverless technology is constantly expanding. It is not only widely used in large mining areas in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, but also in small and medium-sized mining areas in Hebei, Shandong and other places. According to forecasts, this technology will usher in a full-scale outbreak in 2025. In addition to the coal mining field, other types of small mines will also be applied. By then, the use of driverless technology in open-pit mine transportation will become an industry consensus.
From the supply side, the technology and product stability can meet the daily production needs of mines and have the ability to be quickly replicated; from the demand side, the intelligent, safe and green transformation of traditional mines is becoming increasingly urgent, and unmanned driving is a key link. At the same time, miners are beginning to recognize the production capacity of unmanned driving. Another key word is “AI increment”. With the support of AI, new incremental opportunities will emerge in the unmanned driving track, achieving both horizontal and vertical growth of the industrial chain.
