THE LEADER VOLUME 21 • NUMBER 2
Zijin’ s in-house BEV
Editorial Director Paul Moore BSc( Hons), MSc paul @ im-mining. com
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China’ s largest mining company Zijin Mining recently announced a major sustainability milestone – its total installed clean energy capacity has officially surpassed 1,000 MW. This achievement reflects successful grid connections across its global operations, including a 70 MW wind power project at Bayannur Zijin in China; a 23.87 MW solar project in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and a a 25 MW solar facility at Rosebel Gold Mine in Suriname. It states:“ Together, these projects mark meaningful progress in our green and low-carbon development journey.”
But the company’ s net zero transition also extends to green fleets in mining. Since 2020, the Zijin electric vehicle fleet has grown from 13 to 1,183 vehicles, and Xinjiang Zijin Zinc in China it says has become the single mine with the world’ s largest fleet of pure electric mining trucks. These trucks have included models supplied by Breton Technology, which is headquartered in Shanghai and listed on the HKSE in May 2025. Breton has introduced three main BEV mining truck models to the market. In August 2022, it launched a 105- t model, the BRT105E, which enabled heavyload uphill operations. In the second half of 2024, it launched a 120 t model, the BRT120E, with a greater payload and the 135 t rangeextended model BRT135E. It also supplies its own autonomous driving solutions for use in conjunction with its battery electric trucks.
In its 2024 Sustainability Report released in 2025, Zijin Mining stated that the Xinjiang Zijin Zinc mine had 250 all electric mining trucks undertaking 80 % of the transportation tasks in the mining area. It added:“ The energy cost per tonne kilometre for electric mining trucks is only about RMB0.177, compared to as high as RMB0.68 when using fossil energy. In addition, the safety and operating efficiency of electric mining trucks have notable advantages over diesel trucks. With fewer complex transmission components such as engines and transmissions, these trucks have a much lower failure rate than that of fossil fuel vehicles. Moreover, the simpler operation of electric vehicles reduces the risk of accidents due to operational errors.”
At this operation and at other mines, Zijin is also working with other major battery mining truck OEMs like Tonly, LGMG, SANY, XCMG and others. For example at the Zhibula copper mine, part of the Julong Copper Mine complex, Zijin is deploying 60 SANY battery mining trucks fitted with EACON’ s autonomous driving system.
But ultimately, Zijin Mining is looking to have its own in-house captive electric mining trucks. For the problem of slow recharging speed of electric vehicles, Fujian Longking, a company in which Zijin is the controlling shareholder, tailored a battery box and side battery swap system plan for the Xinjiang Zijin Zinc mine. This relationship with Fujian Longking has recently deepened, with Zijin working closely with the company for the development of next generation battery trucks for its own use, not just in China but globally. Xie Xionghui, a Vice President of Zijin Mining is also the Chairman of Longking. In December 2025 the first all electric mining truck developed by Zijin and Longking rolled off the Longking production line in Longyan – the 140 t class LK220E. This was it says after only nine months of development.
Longking states:“ The mines of Zijin Mining are mostly located in remote areas at high altitudes, and adverse conditions such as large day and night temperature difference, high cold temperature, and high temperature have brought severe tests to the stable operation of mine equipment. The pain points of difficult operation, large load demand, and high energy consumption have become key bottlenecks limiting the efficient and green development of the mining industry.”
It adds that its R & D team has gone through several rounds of research and technical arguments, with‘ stable power, improved energy efficiency, and strong safety’ as the main goals.“ By customising a pure electric special drive bridge with high carrying capacity and large tonnage, it greatly improves energy recovery efficiency, achieves the precise adaptation of power output and high endurance capacity under large heavy duty work conditions, and improves the transportation efficiency of mines.” Longking has developed a two-bridge independent central distributed drive system, enabling flexible torque distribution and adaptation to mine conditions.
The statement pointed out that as a worldleading multinational mining giant, Zijin Mining has more than 30 large-scale mines at home and abroad and in order to accelerate the construction of green and smart mines, and at the same time solve the problem of the long-term monopoly of imported brands in the high-end mining truck market, Zijin Mining has clearly put forward the goal of building“ a new energy independent equipment system.” Most significantly, Zijin’ s Julong Copper Mine and Longking have recently signed a number of electric mining truck procurement contracts.
Paul Moore Editorial Director paul @ im-mining. com
International Mining | FEBRUARY 2026 3