“By leveraging technology, we’ve boosted our nickel recovery rate by 15.3% compared to the initial production stage (reaching 68.72% in the first half of 2025),” Ma Long, Chairman of Qinghai Jinchuan Mining Co., Ltd., told a reporter from China News Service on the 2nd. As of now, digitalization has been fully integrated into every stage of the process—from mining and ore blending to concentrate packaging—and an intelligent interlinked system has helped increase per capita efficiency by 40%.

　 　The Xiari Hamu nickel-cobalt mine, located in Golmud City, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, is China’s second-largest nickel-cobalt mine and also the largest sulfide nickel-cobalt deposit discovered globally in recent years. On that day, a reporter from China News Service visited the Xiari Hamu nickel-cobalt mine firsthand.

　　“In mine safety management, the ‘intelligent brain’ plays a crucial role. The coordinated efforts of drone-based 3D scanning and millimeter-level slope monitoring systems have established a robust safety barrier for mine operations,” said Ma Long. He added that the intelligent upgrade of mining enterprises has significantly improved the precision of resource extraction.

　　“Currently, mining is primarily conducted through open-pit methods. The mine employs a highway development approach, and the mining process involves drilling and blasting, loading with excavators, and transporting ore by dump trucks. After coarse crushing, the mined ore is conveyed via belt conveyor to the coarse ore bin at the beneficiation plant,” explained Ai Qixing, Director of the Mineral Resources Department at Qinghai Jinchuan Mining Co., Ltd. He added that the beneficiation process consists of “semi-autogenous grinding + ball milling + intensified flotation + refined tailings disposal.”

　　“In desert regions where average annual precipitation is less than 100 millimeters, we’ve innovated a ‘topsoil conservation + cold-resistant breeding’ technique, successfully greening 130,000 square meters and achieving a 100% compliance rate in the standardized disposal of solid waste,” Ma Long said. He added that the company has already launched the second-phase greening project for the mining area, adding 20,000 square meters of new vegetation and creating an ecological model characterized by “mines nestled amid greenery, with greenery seeping into the mineral veins.”

　　According to reports, the mining area has already built three battery-swapping stations and put into operation 65 all-electric mining trucks as well as seven electric drilling and extraction devices. The coverage rate of green-power equipment in the excavation and stripping processes has exceeded 65%, and production efficiency has increased by 30%. Relying on a comprehensive “photovoltaic + energy storage + electrification” model, the area can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 663,000 tons annually.