Baimsky prepares a driverless haul-truck pilot

A planned Arctic fleet

GDK Baimskaya plans 50 driverless, 330-tonne dump trucks on a closed mine-to-processing-plant road at Peschanka in Chukotka. Russia’s government authorized an experimental regime for the copper-porphyry deposit. Georgy Fotin, Baimskaya Management Company CEO and GDK Baimskaya board member, described an ambition for artificial-intelligence-controlled mining.

The Baimskaya ore-zone project targets 35 million tonnes of annual ore-processing capacity in 2029, doubling to 70 million in 2030. Earlier development capital expenditure estimates were about $8.5 billion. Expected annual output averages 300,000 tonnes of copper and 490,000 ounces of gold over the first ten full operating years. These remain project forecasts.

Mining rules and remote supervision

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed the resolution prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development. Peschanka lies in Chukotka’s Bilibinsky district; the wider experiment also covers rock haulage at the Ozernoye deposit in Buryatia’s Yeravninsky district. The ministry’s 22 June statement distinguishes this pilot from public-road transport experiments: the exemptions concern mining-safety requirements rather than traffic rules, because the trucks are intended for non-public roads.

First Deputy Economic Development Minister Maxim Kolesnikov expects the experiment to help develop regulation for autonomous mining transport. He anticipates lower extraction costs, greater labour productivity and less staffing-intensive development of remote deposits. He also sees potential benefits for northern regional economies, Northern Sea Route activity and worker safety. Those are the ministry’s expectations for scaling the technology, rather than measured results from the planned Peschanka fleet.

Conditions before production

The three-year regime takes effect on 27 June 2026. Before operating a machine, participants must prepare personnel-training programmes and internal admission controls, verify the automated control system and test industrial communications-network connections. Resolution No. 758 establishes three stages:

1. A test driver stays aboard on the test ground, with continuous dispatcher monitoring. Progress requires at least 48 automated machine-hours and no incidents or accidents during the latest 48 hours.
2. Testing continues without an onboard driver. Each machine must enter remote-operator control at least once per shift. Progress requires 96 fault-free automated hours and 24 fault-free remotely controlled hours, with corresponding incident-free periods.
3. Driverless operation moves into production conditions under continuous dispatcher monitoring.

The second and third stages specify one dispatcher per 20 machines. At both transitions, the participant must also identify no technological or other barriers to progression. Authorization therefore establishes a testing pathway with defined conditions; it does not establish that the planned fleet has completed those stages.