The recent national video conference on the promotion of intelligent construction and safety development in mines revealed that after the joint issuance of the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Intelligent Coal Mines" by eight ministries and commissions in 2020 and the national on-site conference on the promotion of intelligent construction in coal mines, more than two years have passed, and coal mine intelligence has entered a stage of rapid development, achieving significant results.

Since 2020, the number of intelligent mining faces in China's coal mines has increased from 494 to 1019, the number of intelligent coal mines has increased from 242 to 572, and the production capacity has increased from 850 million tons to 1.94 billion tons. The number of underground workers has significantly decreased, and labor efficiency and safety levels have greatly improved. Currently, intelligent coal mines in China have eliminated major accidents, with a mortality rate of 0.024 per million tons, which is lower than the national average of 50%. Since 2021, intelligent coal mines have released nearly 600 million tons of advanced production capacity, making important contributions to ensuring national energy security supply.

01 Multi party collaboration and linkage, significant achievements in intelligent construction

The reporter learned from the national video conference on the promotion of intelligent construction and safety development in mines that with the rapid development of coal mine intelligence, China's coal mine intelligence construction has also shown five characteristics: a significant increase in attention, a significant increase in promotion efforts, more perfect regulations and standards, breakthroughs in technical equipment, and the convergence of integrated development forces.

In recent years, various regions, relevant departments, and enterprises have placed intelligent construction on an important agenda. Inner Mongolia plans to achieve intelligent production of all mines by 2023, Shandong will fully complete the intelligent transformation of mines by 2025, Shanxi proposes to achieve intelligent, mechanized, and automated production of large coal mines and coal mines with severe disasters by 2025, and Shaanxi will include intelligent construction in the three-year action assessment of coal mine safety special rectification. In 2022, the National Energy Group will basically achieve the goal of 100% full coverage of coal mine intelligent technology and construction, 100% intelligent mining face, 100% intelligent excavation face, 100% intelligent coal preparation plant, and 100% unmanned fixed positions.

At the same time, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Emergency Management, the State Administration of Mining Safety and other departments are working together to increase policy support. As of now, 25 provinces have introduced financial and tax support measures, and the cumulative investment in the construction of intelligent coal mines in China has exceeded 100 billion yuan, achieving the goal of building 1000 intelligent mining working faces in the three-year special action plan for coal mine safety ahead of schedule.

The new version of the "Coal Mine Safety Regulations" has added relevant requirements for actively promoting coal mine automation and intelligent mining. Relevant parties have successively issued 3 national standards, 25 industry standards, and 70 group standards.

A significant breakthrough has been achieved in the research and application of a batch of core technology equipment, with domestically produced intelligent coal mining equipment for ultra high mining height and rapid excavation equipment reaching the international leading level. Various types of heavy-duty operation robots and intelligent perception robots have been successfully developed. The number of underground robots in coal mines has increased from 19 to 31, and advanced technologies such as proprietary operating systems with independent intellectual property rights and 5G private networks have been promoted and applied.

More than 50 innovation platforms and industry alliances have been established successively, bringing together more than 1000 enterprises, over 100 research institutes, over 50 universities, and 21 academician teams. The scope of cooperation has expanded to 11 industries such as communication and aerospace. A batch of new technologies, equipment, and materials have been applied to the intelligent construction of mines, and the effects of cross-border cooperation grafting, stacking, and doubling continue to emerge.

02 Strengthen demonstration and guidance, take multiple measures in various regions and coal enterprises

In recent years, various regions and related enterprises have strengthened demonstration and guidance, continuously promoted the intelligent construction of coal mines, and set a benchmark for the industry.

The intelligent construction of coal mines is a systematic project that cannot be separated from the support of factors such as policies, funds, technology, and talents.

Inner Mongolia strengthens top-level design, includes the intelligent construction of coal mines in the government work report every year, formulates supporting implementation opinions, studies and forms support policies such as priority for increasing production capacity, priority for resuming work and production, and priority for arranging special funds, and strengthens policy support. At the same time, we will carefully build 11 national first batch of intelligent construction demonstration coal mines, guide coal mining enterprises to raise awareness, and drive the breakthrough of intelligent construction in depth. As of now, Inner Mongolia has built 126 intelligent coal mines, with a total employee efficiency of 28 tons per worker, which is more than three times the national average level.

In the field of coal mining, Shandong Province fully leverages the government's investment guidance and driving role, and the provincial safety production special funds are tilted towards intelligent projects. Since 2019, the government has invested 470 million yuan, driving enterprises to invest 16 billion yuan. At present, the proportion of intelligent coal mines in Shandong Province has reached 78.7%.

Shaanxi has successively promoted intelligent construction in 96 coal mines in northern Shaanxi, Binchang, Huangling and other mining areas. 102 intelligent mining faces and 66 intelligent excavation faces have been built, and all mines with an annual output of over 900000 tons in Xianyang City have achieved intelligent mining.

With the comprehensive acceleration of intelligent construction in coal mines, the effects of "reducing personnel, increasing safety, and improving efficiency" are gradually becoming prominent. The relevant person in charge of the National Energy Group stated that in the past two years, the group's mining face and production system have reduced employment by more than 5000 people; 55 coal mines have achieved safe production for over 1000 days; The total employee efficiency reached 43.8 tons per worker, which is five times the national average level.

According to the relevant person in charge of Shaanxi Coal Group, compared with 2018, the group's coal production has increased by 70 million tons, with an average annual growth rate of 10%, while the number of excavation workfaces has decreased by 42%, resulting in a cumulative reduction of 14000 underground workers and achieving the goal of "safety for fewer people and safety for no one".

We will build all coal mines into intelligent mines in three stages, with a planned investment of 30 billion yuan and a current investment of over 10 billion yuan. The relevant person in charge of Shandong Energy Group stated that the group's intelligent mining production accounts for over 80% of the total, reducing the number of underground personnel by 12000.

03 Addressing weaknesses and strengths to deepen intelligent construction

The national video conference on promoting intelligent construction and safe development of mines pointed out that while acknowledging the achievements, we should also be aware that the overall start of intelligent construction in mines is late, the overall level is not high, and there are still many shortcomings and weaknesses. Some regions and mining enterprises have insufficient understanding, the progress of coal mine construction is not balanced enough, the relevant standards and specifications are not sound enough, and the adaptability of some technical equipment is not strong enough.

In this regard, the national video conference on promoting intelligent construction and safe development of mines emphasizes that doing a good job in intelligent construction and safe development of mines is necessary for safe and high-quality development, and it is also the trend. It is a historic and reshaping opportunity for every mining enterprise. All regions, relevant departments, and mining enterprises should adhere to the principle of safety first and prevention oriented, with a focus on few people and no one, and digital empowerment, to further promote the intelligent construction of mines.

·To further fully leverage the inter ministerial coordination mechanism and promote the implementation of policies and measures such as the Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Intelligent Development of Coal Mines; Each region should further establish and improve a coordination mechanism for promoting work; Each mining enterprise should take intelligent construction as the "top priority" project, ensuring that planning and deployment are in place, funding is invested in place, responsibilities are implemented in place, and talent is guaranteed.

·We need to further strengthen top-level design and improve the policy standard system. We need to strengthen planning guidance, increase policy supply, and improve standards and regulations.

·We need to further strengthen key breakthroughs and promote coordinated and balanced development. At present and in the next stage, the construction of relatively lagging areas, severely disaster prone mines, and non coal mines should be accelerated, while guiding and supporting the synchronous development of private mining enterprises.

·We need to further strengthen intelligent prevention and control, and improve the level of security governance. We should actively create unmanned intelligent mines, enhance our risk prevention and control capabilities, and improve our intelligent supervision and monitoring capabilities.

·We need to further strengthen innovation driven development and shape the advantages of iterative development. We need to establish and improve innovation mechanisms, build a technology innovation system with enterprises as the main body, market as the guide, and deep integration of industry, academia, research and application. Consolidate innovative talents, strengthen the construction and management of intelligent expert databases, and accelerate the cultivation of composite talents with relevant knowledge in mining and information technology. Intensify efforts to tackle key technologies and equipment, with a focus on unmanned drilling and blasting, precise disaster perception, and other key technologies. Accelerate the iteration of intelligent equipment and robot research and development, and strive to improve the applicability, stability, and reliability of intelligent equipment in complex environments.