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350-ton Longking ZL230E is the biggest, baddest battery mining rig you can buy

Zijin Longking rolled into a media ceremony in Longyan City, Fujian Province this week with the all-electric ZL230E electric mining truck – a 350-ton GVW haul truck that sits in a class of its own as the single largest-tonnage battery electric mining truck in China.

Referred to as the LK350E (for its 350 ton GVWR), the new three-axle ZL230E (for its 230 ton payload capacity) is currently the largest-tonnage pure electric mining truck in China – with better-than-average odds of having the world title locked down, too!

Developed by Zijin Longking and the autonomous mining experts at Australia’s EACON, the big haul truck represents another significant step for China’s “new energy” mining equipment, and further demonstrates the mining industry’s push into more green, sustainable operations.

“The electrification and intelligentisation [sic] of mining operations are currently converging at an accelerated pace,” reads a statement released by Longking. “This strategic partnership will further foster synergy between new-energy mining equipment and autonomous driving technologies, extend the respective strengths of both parties into real-world mining environments, and jointly explore more efficient and intelligent mining transport solutions.”

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The truck, iteslf


Longking ZL230E; by Zijin.

The new truck powers ahead with a pair of 800 kW electric motors fitted in each of the rear drive axles managed by advanced drive systems for coordinated, calculated power output that delivers real-time power matching across axles for sustained uphill power and maximum maneuverability in operationally complex mining environments.

Power comes from an inconceivably massive 1,400 kWh battery pack fitted with a durable, high-capacity ultra-fast-charging battery system that the company says can support charging from 10 to 90% capacity in just 25 minutes, significantly reducing downtime compared to the hundreds-of-gallons diesel top-off the ICE-powered competition needs.

EACON conducts the Orcestra


Screencap; via EACON.

The working partnership between the two companies combines Longking battery-powered truck platform with EACON’s full technology stack – a suite of solutions that spans perception, decision-making, control, and cloud-based dispatch operations – to create dependable, driverless haul trucks with logic and behaviors that are ideally suited to China’s open-pit mining environments.

EACON is currently operating more than 3,100 autonomous trucks cross more than 40 large-scale mines, including Zijin Mining’s Zijinshan Gold-Copper Mine and Julong Copper Mine in Tibet, as well as at the Norton Gold Fields project in Australia.

The rollout ceremony for the Zijin Longking ZL230E was part of larger investment promotion and business matching event for the “Mining + Intelligent Manufacturing” industry in Xinluo District earlier this week.


SOURCE | IMAGES: Zijin Longking.


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Avatar for Jo Borrás Jo Borrás

I’ve been involved in the electric vehicle transition in one way or another since 1997, and have covered the industry as a journalist since 2008. You can catch more of my work on Quick Charge and The Heavy Equipment Podcast with Mike Switzer.

NOTE: any opinions expressed here are solely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Federal government, the State of Illinois, Electrek, or anyone else. Nothing here should be interpreted as a statement of official policy, legal guidance, or an endorsement unless expressly labeled as such.