AUTONOMOUS HAULAGE
equipment there, including Bell ADTs in production settings. Finally, Pronto is in the process of deploying its system at a mining site in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the deal with
HCM is not exclusive – in North America it launched autonomy solutions with Komatsu North America for quarry-size trucks which integrate directly with Komatsu’ s Smart
Quarry fleet management suite. HCM for its part is already experienced with autonomy on its own equipment, having developed its own AHS which it cites as
TAGE’ s long term success
IM also caught up with TAGE Idriver Investor Relations and Marketing Director Sun Zhijie to talk about its market longevity and successes
Q TAGE is one of the earliest companies in the Chinese market to introduce autonomous driving transportation technology- what has contributed to your long-term success?
TAGE was registered and established in China in 2016. The company has always focused on providing customers with safe, green, efficient, and economical unmanned transportation services in open-pit mining scenarios. In 2018, TAGE modified China’ s first unmanned wide-body vehicle and unmanned rigid mining truck. In 2022, it created China’ s first L4-level unmanned openpit mining project. It is a market pioneer and technology leader in China’ s open-pit mining unmanned transportation industry. To date, TAGE has served over 30 intelligent open-pit mining projects in China. These mines encompass coal, steel, non-ferrous metals, and aggregate / building material mines. Based on an integrated‘ vehicle-ground-cloud’ system architecture, TAGE’ s unmanned transportation efficiency has reached the level of traditional manned transportation operations. TAGE is the construction unit of the Key Laboratory of Unmanned Transportation Technology for Special Vehicles under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China. Our unmanned transportation projects have been repeatedly selected as typical demonstration and promotion cases at the national and ministerial levels by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Emergency Management, and the State Administration of Mine Safety. Furthermore, TAGE’ s largest external shareholder is CHN Energy, China’ s largest coal mining and operating company. We believe that TAGE’ s success is primarily due to its consistent focus on technological development in open-pit mining scenarios, its rich practical experience in projects, its industry-leading unmanned transportation efficiency, its continuously growing market and customer demand, and its strong shareholder support.
Q Currently, is the main demand for autonomous driving technology coming from Xinjiang or Inner Mongolia? Or is demand growing simultaneously in both regions? Given that many mines in Inner Mongolia are old mines, is deploying autonomous driving technology there more challenging?
According to statistics, the Chinese market for unmanned mining transportation solutions reached approximately 4 billion yuan in 2025, accounting for over 46 % of the global market. It is projected that the market size will continue to grow to 30.9 billion yuan by 2030. China’ s main open-pit mine unmanned transportation market is concentrated in Xinjiang, followed by Inner Mongolia. TAGE has several successful application service cases in both regions. In Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, our projects frequently encounter challenges from extreme weather events such as sandstorms, heavy snow, dense fog, and heavy rain. In these open-pit mines, summer surface temperatures can reach a stable 70 ° C, while winter temperatures often drop to-40 to-50 ° C. To address these extreme weather and environmental challenges, TAGE has deployed largescale model technologies based on its‘ Vehicle-Ground-Cloud Integrated Unmanned Transportation System,’ including end-to-end unmanned driving models, intelligent vehicle group scheduling models, and health management models. Compared to deploying autonomous transportation systems in regions with mild climates and comfortable natural environments, the challenges of deploying such systems in harsh natural environments such as the Gobi Desert, deserts, and plateaus are undoubtedly greater. However, we firmly believe that applying autonomous transportation technology in these harsh mining areas is where the true value and significance of technological innovation( autonomous transportation technology) lies.
Q Do you ultimately plan to expand TAGE’ s autonomous driving technology for mining trucks to markets outside of China? Do you have any corresponding plans or strategies for this?
TAGE has a clear plan to expand its unmanned mining transportation system and technology products to markets outside of China. In fact, in 2025, we signed our first commercial order for a Chinese open-pit mining intelligent driving company going global, which included providing unmanned transportation systems and services for more than 40 large rigid mining trucks with a load capacity exceeding 100 tons. To date, this is the largest overseas order signed by a Chinese open-pit mining intelligent driving company. As this order is gradually delivered, we will use this as a model, leveraging the first-mover advantage of our initial overseas order, to continuously expand our overseas market projects.
Q Compared to similar systems from companies such as EACON and CiDi, what are the main functional differentiating advantages of TAGE’ s mining truck autonomous driving system?
In unmanned transportation systems, we consistently adhere to an integrated‘ vehicle, ground, and cloud’ system architecture. The closed open-pit mine transportation scenario requires multivehicle collaboration and efficient coordination to achieve optimal transportation efficiency. Therefore, a complete and mature scheduling system and a vehicle-side unmanned driving system are needed for effective integration. Furthermore, TAGE is a pioneering company in applying large-scale models to unmanned transportation systems in the mining industry. All of these factors enable us to provide customers with safer, more efficient, more economical, and more environmentally friendly unmanned transportation services. Currently, in our largest project in China, nearly 300 unmanned wide-body vehicles are efficiently and stably providing unmanned transportation services to customers. Meanwhile, TAGE Intelligent Mobility’ s unmanned transportation system can be adapted to both unmanned wide-body trucks( 45-100 tons payload) and large rigid mining trucks( 100-400 tons payload). This is one of the reasons we were able to sign our first overseas order, as overseas mines primarily use large rigid mining trucks.
Q It’ s worth mentioning that your autonomous driving technology is applied to both large wide-body truck fleets and rigid mining truck fleets- are there significant differences in the autonomous driving technology solutions for these two types of vehicles?
Because large rigid mining trucks have characteristics and differences compared to wide-body trucks, such as greater vehicle weight, larger turning radius, and more high-value equipment, there are core technical challenges at the unmanned driving control level, including stronger vehicle dynamics and inertia, greater difficulty in braking, higher difficulty in steering control, greater variation in dynamic models, more difficult trajectory tracking, and higher requirements for safety tolerance and decision-making redundancy.
26 International Mining | SEPTEMBER 2026