China home to 813 intelligent mining, tunneling sections

By Qiu Chaoyi, People’s Daily
A total of 813 mining and tunneling sections across China have been equipped with intelligent production systems, up 65 percent from two years ago, said an official with the National Mine Safety Administration (NMSA) at a regular press conference recently held by the Ministry of Emergency Management.
In particular, 477 of them are mining sections and 336 tunneling sections, up 43 percent and 109 percent from two years ago, respectively, said Sun Qingguo, director of the Department of Safety Basic Management of the NMSA.
Besides, 29 types of robots have been employed at over 370 coal mines across the country, he added.
A batch of intelligent mining technologies have made new progress. China has developed its first intelligent full-section rectangular tunneling machine and a smart hydraulic support with a mining height of 10 meters. Besides, smart systems for water detection and release have been put into use, and there are currently 146 autonomous mining trucks in operation across the country.
The NMSA, in collaboration with relevant departments, have rolled out a series of policies to make coal mines more intelligent. Fourteen provinces and autonomous regions, including Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan and Shaanxi, have also launched policies to support the construction of intelligent coal mines.
Recently, the NMSA has started making 92 relevant standards on intelligent control systems and auxiliary production systems. A working group for mining standardization under the National Information Technology Standardization Technical Committee was also established under the guidance of the NMSA, which has further improved the standardization system of intelligent mining.
Supervision in the mining sector is more efficient. “We have vigorously promoted informatization and included 2,611 operational mining sites across the country in a national early warning system for mining safety,” said Wang Duanwu, an official with the NMSA.
The progress made in intelligent mining construction has effectively improved safe production and supplying ability of coal mines.
“The number of mining accidents dropped 46.8 percent in the first two months this year,” said Zhang Xin, deputy head of the NMSA. According to him, the number of mining accidents and the number of people killed in mining accidents over the last year were down by 16 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively. The death rate per million tonnes produced hit a record low, he added.
It’s notable that China’s coal production grew by 5.7 percent year-on-year, Zhang said.