China trials unmanned trucks on world’s highest mine, 5,600m from sea level

China is building the world’s highest unmanned mine at a forbidding altitude of 5,600 metres (18,372 feet), higher than the world’s highest known inhabited settlement.

At the Huoshaoyun lead-zinc mine in Hotan county, Xinjiang, domestically developed unmanned mining trucks have successfully completed ore loading and transport testing, according to the state-owned Science and Technology Daily.

These machines can operate round the clock, eliminating the risk to workers of exposure to the low-oxygen, frigid conditions of high-altitude environments. This stands as a testament to humanity’s ability to access zones fraught with physiological hazards and effectively harness their resources.

This achievement “marks a major breakthrough in China’s intelligent mining development within high-altitude extreme environments, contributing an advanced ‘Chinese solution’ to global plateau mineral resource exploitation, the Science and Technology Daily said in its December 1 report.

The world’s highest settlement is La Rinconada, a small town nestled in the Peruvian Andes that is home to around 30,000 people. Most of its population are gold miners working in nearby mines and their families, settled at a frigid altitude of between 5,090 and 5,300 metres.

China has discovered its finest and largest reserves of lead-zinc deposits to date deep within the Kunlun Mountains, at altitudes even higher than La Rinconada.

South China Morning Post