Runtime earns attention. Auditability earns trust.
When a mining technology supplier reports that equipment has operated continuously for 24 months, the claim deserves attention. It is materially stronger than a laboratory test, a factory acceptance certificate or a shipment announcement.
It is not, however, a complete investment case.
In August 2026, International Mining reported that a wheel-mounted mobile X-ray transmission (XRT) ore-sorting system had operated for more than 24 months at the Zhalixikang lead-zinc polymetallic mine in Tibet. The site is located at an altitude of approximately 4,800 metres. The reported system integrates feeding, crushing, screening, sorting and stockpiling and can be moved as the active mining face changes.
For the 12–60 mm size fraction, the article reported operating throughput of approximately 60 tonnes per hour and annual waste rejection of about 150,000 tonnes before the material would otherwise be transported to the concentrator.
These are meaningful operating signals. They indicate that the technology has moved beyond a demonstration machine and has been exposed to high altitude, cold climate, logistics constraints and a real production duty.
The public record also includes an international step. In April 2026, Tianjin MeiTeng Technology reported completion of trial operation at Tajik-China Mining’s lead-zinc operations in Tajikistan, with five XRT systems placed into production. The supplier disclosed a cumulative waste-rejection rate of 14.83% and lead-plus-zinc grades in the rejected stream of approximately 0.4% during the trial period. It also described the retrofit of previously installed equipment, assumption of operation and maintenance responsibilities and establishment of a Central Asia service capability.
Taken together, the two cases suggest a pathway from domestic industrial operation to initial overseas deployment. But they must not be combined into a larger claim than the evidence supports. The 24-month runtime belongs to the Tibet case. The Tajikistan project has a shorter public operating history and its performance data are primarily supplier-reported.
What the evidence already proves
The available material supports several reasonable conclusions.
First, mobile XRT sorting is being used in an actual polymetallic mining environment, not only in test facilities. Second, the Tibet installation has accumulated meaningful operating duration under demanding environmental conditions. Third, the mobile configuration has demonstrated the practical ability to relocate with the mining face. Fourth, the Tajikistan project has progressed beyond equipment delivery into trial operation, production use and local support.
For an international buyer, this is sufficient to justify technical engagement, a data-room request and project-specific testwork. It may be sufficient to place the technology on a qualified longlist.
It is not yet sufficient to assume that the same economic and metallurgical result will be achieved on another orebody.
The five questions a buyer should still ask
1. Who produced and approved the data?
Source provenance matters. Was the result published by the supplier, mine owner, EPC contractor, laboratory or independent verifier? Did the mine sign an acceptance certificate? Can the buyer speak directly with the operating and maintenance teams?
The Tibet information currently available in English is mainly an industry-media account, while the detailed Tajikistan figures are supplier disclosures. This does not make the information unusable. It means the next diligence step should seek owner-verifiable records rather than repeat the headline as an independently audited result.
2. How is each metric defined?
“Continuous operation” may describe calendar time since commissioning, scheduled operating hours or actual availability. These are not interchangeable.
A buyer should request scheduled hours, operating hours, planned maintenance, unplanned downtime, utilisation, mean time between failure and mean time to repair. A throughput statement should identify feed size, bulk density, moisture, mineralogy and the proportion of time the plant actually operated at the stated rate.
3. Is there a complete and reconciled mass balance?
Waste rejection is valuable only if acceptable metal loss is maintained. The evidence package should therefore contain representative feed sampling, accepted and rejected mass yields, head grade, accepted-stream grade, reject grade, metal recovery, sampling frequency, laboratory method and reconciliation rules.
A single waste-rejection percentage cannot be evaluated without knowing the ore conditions and the value lost with the rejected material.
4. What does reliability cost?
Availability is only one part of lifecycle value. The buyer also needs power and compressed-air consumption, wear-part life, sensor calibration requirements, belt and valve maintenance, labour input, specialist-tool requirements, spares inventory and remote-support dependency.
The appropriate commercial comparison is not the purchase price of the sorter. It is the change in cost and value across mining, haulage, crushing, grinding, flotation, tailings and metal production.
5. Can the result transfer to another mine?
XRT performance is application-specific. Particle size, surface condition, moisture, mineral texture, density contrast, liberation and grade distribution all influence the result. High-altitude mechanical robustness does not by itself prove sorting performance on a different mineral system.
Before procurement, the mine should define a staged validation programme: representative sample testing, pilot work, agreed acceptance criteria, on-site commissioning, performance testing and a controlled decision gate for expansion.
What a buyer-ready evidence pack should contain
For an ore-sorting provider seeking international qualification, NOVEXA recommends a structured evidence pack with at least ten components:
- ore-characterisation and sampling protocol;
- testwork and model-training basis;
- complete mass and metal balance;
- operating-domain and feed-limit statement;
- hourly throughput and availability history;
- energy, compressed-air, wear and labour data;
- calibration, quality-control and model-change records;
- mine-owner acceptance and reference-contact protocol;
- local spares, service, cybersecurity and escalation plan; and
- a transparent list of unvalidated conditions and the next validation stage.
This package does not weaken the sales case. It makes the case usable inside the customer’s technical, safety, procurement and investment-governance processes.
The NOVEXA view
The Zhalixikang and Tajikistan disclosures are positive evidence of progress. They show that Chinese sensor-based sorting technology is gaining operating exposure in difficult conditions and beginning to cross into international delivery.
The responsible conclusion is neither dismissal nor unqualified endorsement. It is that the technology has earned serious technical consideration and now needs a more auditable bridge between supplier-reported performance and buyer-approved investment evidence.
That bridge is where NOVEXA MINING operates. We help mine owners define the evidence required for a decision, and help capable Chinese suppliers convert real operating experience into transparent, comparable and project-specific documentation. NOVEXA is independent, manufacturer-neutral and execution-led.
Evidence sources
Independence statement
Company, mine and product names are used only to identify publicly reported evidence. NOVEXA MINING is not affiliated with, and does not represent, Huayu Mining, Zhalixikang Mine, Tajik-China Mining or Tianjin MeiTeng Technology in relation to this article. Publicly reported figures have not been independently audited by NOVEXA. This article is not an endorsement, certification or project-specific engineering recommendation.