Zijin Mining has built a mining truck company in nine months and is now taking it offshore. Zijin Longking, controlled by Zijin through Fujian Longking of Longyan, launched its first battery electric truck in January 2026, when the first LK220E went to the Zijinshan gold and copper mine. Production line units followed to the Julong copper mine by May, a 230 tonne class model was launched in August alongside a strategic cooperation agreement with autonomous haulage firm EACON Mining, and the company now says 43 trucks are deployed in China.
The Australian move is the news. Zijin Longking Australia, based in Perth, will act as the market and distribution platform for the trucks and for battery energy storage systems, and is a major sponsor and exhibitor at IMARC 2026 in Sydney. Executive director Luke Matias told International Mining the company plans to bring a ZL150E truck to Australia in December 2026 for on site demonstration testing, assessing energy consumption, availability and gradeability under Australian conditions and standards. The renamed range runs from the 150 tonne payload ZL150E and the 230 tonne ZL230E to a 70 tonne cabless autonomous ZL70EI, with a 360 tonne class ZL360E at concept design stage and anticipated for order in early 2027.
Capacity is being built to match. On October 20 the company broke ground on its Xinluo production project in Longyan: almost 60,000 square metres, total investment of 550 million yuan, and planned annual capacity of 500 mining truck frames and 300 units of electric mining trucks, underground trucks, electric shovels and other products, with estimated annual output value of about 500 million yuan.
The operating claims are the figures to watch rather than to bank. Matias said the deployed fleet, 41 of them ZL150E units, has held equipment availability above 90 percent, hauls more than 3,000 tonnes per truck per day, runs at energy costs nearly 80 percent below conventional diesel trucks with one battery swap per shift, and has run autonomous haulage trials with EACON at Julong. Those are company statements from a nine month old fleet at its parent’s own mines. The Australian demonstration in December 2026, at third party sites under Australian standards, is the first independent test of whether a miner owned equipment maker can sell trucks to other miners.