Similar to the new energy vehicle sector in 2021, the autonomous driving industry for mining areas is crossing its own critical threshold of value realization. Driven by both safety and economic factors, unmanned driving has become the essential, core path for intelligent upgrading in mining zones. The concept that "fewer people means greater safety, and no people means ultimate safety" is transitioning from a slogan to reality. According to Soochow Securities data, by the end of 2025, the number of operational autonomous mining trucks nationwide had exceeded 4,000 units, representing a growth of over 45 times in the past five years. Sales penetration increased from 1.10% in 2021 to 16.10% in 2025. As the industry approaches a commercial inflection point, companies in the autonomous mining vehicle sector are also queuing up for public listings. In 2026, BoRui Technology and TaGe ZhiXing successively submitted applications to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. EACON (07687), the company with the highest market share in the industry, acted even earlier, initiating its Hong Kong IPO journey in 2025 and commencing its share offering on June 29, 2026, now on the final step before listing. The capital market activities of these related companies also signal the industry's clear entry into a "scale expansion phase."

The Inflection Point in Penetration

As early as 2024, the autonomous driving industry for mining areas had reached the "eve" of comprehensive large-scale commercial implementation. That year, the China National Coal Association released a report predicting that the number of autonomous mining trucks in open-pit coal mines would reach 2,500 units in 2024, a growth of over 120% compared to 1,131 units in 2023. This scaling growth led many to view 2024 as the first year of commercialization for autonomous driving in China's open-pit mines. The increase in quantity is just one aspect; a more core change is reflected in the penetration rate. Data shows that in December 2024, the penetration rate of new autonomous mining trucks among newly added vehicles in open-pit mines was already close to 10%. From the perspective of commercial expansion, "10%" holds strong symbolic significance—in 2021, China's new energy vehicle penetration rate first exceeded 10%, and in the subsequent four years, it rapidly captured nearly half of the passenger vehicle market. The situation for the autonomous mining driving industry at the end of 2024 is highly similar. "Referring to the S-curve penetration pattern of new energy vehicles, 10% is the core inflection point where an industry transitions from the introduction phase to rapid volume expansion, formally crossing the critical threshold," an industry insider stated. Subsequent developments in the autonomous mining driving sector have confirmed this view. According to Soochow Securities research data, the sales penetration rate of domestic autonomous mining trucks has risen from 1.10% in 2021 to 16.10% in 2025. Frost & Sullivan further predicts that by 2030, the sales penetration rate of autonomous mining trucks will exceed 50%, with the in-use penetration rate expected to surpass 40%. Taking the soon-to-be-listed domestic leader in autonomous mining driving, EACON, as an example, its speed of scale expansion is staggering. Data indicates that by the end of 2024, the company's actual operational vehicles had just exceeded 1,000 units. However, as of December 31, 2025, its operational fleet included 2,580 active autonomous mining trucks, making it the largest provider of autonomous driving solutions for mining areas in China. Furthermore, in terms of market share, as of December 31, 2025, the company's autonomous mining driving solutions were deployed in 19 out of 41 Chinese open-pit coal mines with an annual approved capacity exceeding 10 million tons, and in seven of the 12 largest open-pit mines by annual approved capacity. Among the 11 nationwide autonomous mining projects with over a hundred autonomous trucks deployed at a single mine, nine have deployed EACON's solutions. Additionally, also as of the end of 2025, the company has increased its fleet of autonomous mining trucks deployed at a single mine site to over 500 vehicles, constituting the world's largest autonomous mining truck fleet deployed at a single mine. In Australia, known as the "strictest testing ground" for global mining, EACON successfully completed the "safety driver offboard" test for autonomous mining trucks, becoming the first and currently the only Chinese company to complete a substantive on-site test of unmanned mining vehicles in Australia. According to public company information, six mining trucks retrofitted for autonomous operation are currently operating at that mine site, with plans to advance to regular operation of grouped fleets within the year, aiming to capture the vast overseas market first.

Establishing a High-Barrier Profit Model

While its vertical growth momentum is fully unleashed and its growth curve steeply ascends, compared horizontally across the broader autonomous driving industry, mining area autonomous driving has already moved ahead, exiting the technology validation cycle and entering the phase of scaled replication and deployment, demonstrating unique commercial value. It is generally understood that the core commercial logic of autonomous mining driving is reducing personnel, increasing efficiency, and enhancing safety to reduce losses, achieving profitability by saving operational costs and minimizing losses from work stoppages and accidents, thus possessing dual attributes of safety and economics. Soochow Securities pointed out in a research report that autonomous mining driving features fixed routes, rigid demand, clear paying customers, and calculable ROI, making it easier to first establish a closed commercial loop. Simultaneously, the mining-specific data and industry know-how accumulated by the autonomous mining driving sector have formed differentiated competitive barriers distinct from other autonomous driving fields. Unlike urban autonomous driving scenarios with many standardized road signs and markings, mine sites are unstructured environments lacking road signs and lane markings, with no traffic facilities like traffic lights, and road surfaces frequently change due to excavation activities. Mining areas are often rocky and dusty, imposing stricter requirements on the shock resistance and dustproofing of precision components. Extreme temperatures and vibration impacts are also harsher compared to the operating environment of Robotaxis, and the heavy-load transportation of unmanned mining trucks places higher demands on sensors and braking control. Taking EACON's technical practice as an example, at the Xinjiang Tianchi Energy South Open-pit Coal Mine, the largest open-pit coal mine in China by approved capacity, the company's autonomous driving solution achieved precise identification of obstacles like road edges, tire tracks, and falling rocks in extreme environments characterized by dust storms, coal dust, and winter cold snaps reaching minus 39 degrees Celsius. This helped the mine become the first open-pit coal mine in China to achieve large-scale application of autonomous driving in both coal mining and stripping scenarios, enabling regular 7x24-hour unmanned production operations. At the Tibet Julong Copper Mine, EACON successfully deployed autonomous driving trucks in a plateau region at an altitude of up to 5,400 meters. In an extreme hypoxic environment with oxygen content 40% lower than at sea level, the system demonstrated higher sustained operational stability and safety than human drivers. The solution's excellent performance in extreme environments also forms the foundation for EACON's scaled commercial deployment, and the company itself is approaching a definitive inflection point in profitability. From 2023 to 2025, the company's total revenue grew from RMB 271 million to RMB 1.435 billion, representing a compound annual growth rate of 130.2%. Notably, in 2024, the company successfully turned its gross profit positive, achieving RMB 74.71 million, which more than doubled in 2025 to reach RMB 145 million. More noteworthy is the structural shift in EACON's business model. Data shows that in 2025, revenue from its light-asset model, i.e., the non-vehicle ownership model, already accounted for 56.8% of total revenue. Related revenue expanded from RMB 113 million in 2023 to RMB 815 million in 2025. The business model is transitioning from heavy-asset transportation contracting to high-margin technical services, completing a division of labor within the industry chain inside the sector. This path to profitability is undoubtedly shorter and clearer than that of most L4 players, achieving a true closed commercial loop first. According to EACON, the company has positioned itself as a technology service provider rather than a transportation operator. "In the future, we will focus more on technical services, defining ourselves as an 'AI Driver'. The customer buys the vehicle, and we provide the driving capability, enabling this 'driver' to grow from a novice to an expert," stated Lin Qiao, Vice President of EACON. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the market size for autonomous driving solutions in Chinese mining areas reached RMB 3.8 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 171.4% from 2021 to 2025. In the global market, the dual challenges of rising labor costs and increasing mining difficulty outside China are becoming more prominent. The global market size for autonomous mining driving solutions, measured by revenue, is projected to increase from $1.0 billion in 2025 to $7.3 billion in 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 47.4%. On this highly certain future path, a group of companies, led by EACON, are accelerating their capture of the rapidly growing autonomous mining truck market through fundraising via Hong Kong listings. In the future, as EACON lists on the Hong Kong market, the autonomous mining driving industry will also迎来 an opportunity for value re-evaluation in the capital markets, serving as an annotation for the era where intelligent upgrading in Chinese mining areas transitions from "optional" to "essential".