Mine + Intelligence: What kind of mine is smart mine



"China's economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development, and we are in a critical period of transforming the development model, optimizing the economic structure and shifting growth drivers." 

With the transformation of old and new growth drivers and the continuous advancement of the supply-side structure, social development has entered a new era of intelligent development. At the 2018 China International Mining Conference, some experts said that in order to realize the transformation of China from a mining country to a mining power and shape the image of China's mining industry in the new era, mine construction must also take the road of innovation. At present, intelligent technology has played an increasingly important role in various fields, and intelligent mine operation has become an inevitable trend, and has become a technical hotspot and development direction in the global mining field.

It is understood that the Western developed countries from the 1960s began to study automation, digital, intelligent mining technology, in order to obtain a competitive advantage in the mining industry, has developed the "intelligent mine" and "unmanned mine" development plans. In recent years, with our country's continuous attention and support, some of the domestic large and medium-sized mining enterprises digital design tool penetration rate, key process numerical control rate has been improved to a certain extent, the level of intelligence is also constantly improving.

So, what kind of mine is the smart mine, what should the smart mine be built into in the future, and what advanced technologies are already available? With these questions, the reporter found the answer in a number of relevant forums at the 2018 China International Mining Conference. Let's listen to what the experts say.

What is a smart mine?

Zhang Yuansheng, director of the Intelligent Mine Center of Beijing Mining and Metallurgy Science and Technology Group Company: For intelligent mines, many people have different understandings, according to the current stage of development, we can summarize a general framework structure. The first is the two basic platforms, namely the big data storage and analysis platform and the mine Internet of Things platform, which is the basis for intelligent production management in mines. Secondly, from the perspective of the operation model, the intelligent mine should have several characteristics: the production management should be fully networked, remote, remote control and even unmanned, the mining operations should be intelligent, the selection process should be automated and even intelligent, and the transportation scheduling should be seamless. From the perspective of management, the future smart mine from all aspects of production, from geological exploration to mining, and then to the management of data, should be based on the two basic platforms mentioned above.

In general, the core content of smart mine construction includes: Intelligent 3D mining design, fully covered underground optical fiber network system, underground Internet of Things platform, underground accurate positioning and navigation system, use of underground rapid measurement means, use of new underground blasting technology, equipment to achieve autonomous and intelligent operation, integrated scheduling system, safety monitoring system, big data acquisition system, etc.

Ge Qifa, director of the Information and Intelligent Center of China Enfei Mining Division: At present, there is no unified definition of the concept of intelligent mines. In our view, the construction of intelligent mines must include four aspects: automation of production process, intelligent logistics management, unmanned fixed facilities, and comprehensive informatization of production management, and finally achieve safe, green and efficient mining of mines, so as to achieve concept innovation, system innovation, management innovation, and technological innovation. Lu Tao, deputy chief engineer of Orient Measurement and Control Technology Co., LTD. : The main content of smart mine is no longer the narrow three-dimensional geological modeling, but includes equipment, sub-dialogue control, production execution, operation and management, intelligent decision-making, unmanned operation and other integrated solutions. From the concept of digital mine in 1999 to the formation of the concept of smart mine in 2010, and then to today, after 18 years of development, the industry has formed a stable 5-level technical architecture, many technologies and products have matured in the process of infrastructure construction, and the concept of smart mine has also penetrated into various enterprises. In addition, the technology of smart mines has formed some standards. For example, the "General Technical Specifications for Smart Mine Information Systems" released on May 1 this year. The development of smart mines has become a tool for mining enterprises to reduce staff and increase efficiency, and it is a technical guarantee for enterprises to reduce costs and improve quality. Many mining enterprises have put their profit growth point and core competitiveness in this respect, and it has also become the main direction of our development of smart mines.

Why build smart mines?

Zhang Yuansheng, director of intelligent Mine Center of Beijing Mining and Metallurgy Science and Technology Group Company: At present, the world has entered a new era of intelligent development, in China, the economy has changed from high-speed development to high-quality development. In this context, the mining industry is faced with many challenges - the relatively low price of mineral products, the increasingly deep exploitation of resources, and the harsh operating environment. In addition, the serious aging of employees, talent shortage, rising labor costs, safety and environmental protection requirements are becoming more and more stringent for the development of the mining industry has brought great challenges. The global mining industry is also experiencing a new revolution, and the combination of big data, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things is becoming more and more close to the mine. The mining production mode is constantly updated, the mining industry is developing in the direction of planning, intensification and coordination, the mining engineering has entered the remote control, intelligent and even unmanned stage, and the selection and smelting process has fully realized automation and gradually expanded to the intelligent stage. From exploration data to reserve data, from production data to operational data, mining big data is also gradually showing strong productivity. The global mining industry has fully entered a new historical stage based on the global allocation of resources, guaranteed by the international operation of enterprises, taken transnational cooperation as a means, and taken green, ecological, intelligent and harmonious as a goal. Therefore, the development of intelligent and even unmanned mining technology, innovation of mining mode, reduce underground workers, is the only way for the global mining industry. Peter Yang, President, International Area, Caterpillar Surface Mining and Development: Unmanned transportation systems are very important for mines, which means increased safety and efficiency, and truly zero injuries and zero time loss. In addition, the big data analysis of mechanical utilization rate is also very important, which can enable the mine to improve the efficiency of mechanization and avoid unnecessary losses caused by improper maintenance and downtime.

Ge Qifa, director of the Information and Intelligent Center of China Enfei Mining Division: At present, the industry is still facing some problems and challenges: from the perspective of global mining, mainly the fluctuation of the bulk metal market, the increase of investment project risk, the shortage of labor capacity, production efficiency needs to be improved, and the innovation ability needs to be improved. From China's point of view, the main mining safety standards, environmental standards are getting higher and higher, labor shortage, mining conditions are getting worse and worse, mining scale is getting larger and larger, ore grade is getting lower and lower.

Since the 1960s, the research of intelligent digital mine has been carried out abroad. The relevant work in our country started in the 1990s of last century. At present, including Sweden, Finland, Australia, Canada, South Africa and other countries have respectively put forward the planning of intelligent mine construction and intelligent mine research and development plans, China also has relevant plans in the "intelligent manufacturing 2025".

Giacoko Rukojarvi, Global Business Development Manager, Sandvik Automation: The mining sector is currently undergoing a major transformation, which is related to the production environment of the mining industry, especially in the underground mining environment, which brings a variety of new challenges to production. In the traditional mining field, all aspects of production are relatively conservative, leaving a lot of room for improvement and improvement. Moreover, as the mining of mineral resources becomes deeper and deeper, new challenges will continue to emerge, and the technical solutions to these challenges are robotization, electronization, digitization and remote operation, which can not only bring about the improvement of production capacity, but also help reduce capital investment and production costs, and improve safety.

Yu Guizhen, founder of Beijing Tage Zhixing Technology Co., LTD. : Through research, it is found that there are many vehicles transporting ores and earthmoving in open-pit mines, and there are two or three thousand large mines, and there are at least twenty or thirty small mines in general. Moreover, usually a car needs to be equipped with 2 ~5 drivers, which is very scarce, and it is also very high personnel costs for enterprises. From the driver's point of view, the working environment of mine transportation is very bad, dust, long-term bumps, etc., will cause great damage to their health. Therefore, the unmanned transformation of transport vehicles can save a lot of labor costs for enterprises on the one hand, and can also alleviate the current driver shortage and occupational health problems on the other hand.

Are there any sample projects at home and abroad?

Zhang Yuansheng, director of the Intelligent Mine Center of Beijing Mining and Metallurgy Science and Technology Group Company: There are already many well-built intelligent mines in the world, such as the familiar Balik and Rio Tinto, which are greatly expanding the construction of intelligent mines. Rio Tinto has made great progress in establishing a remote integrated network center in Western Australia. At present, the Northparkes mine in Australia has realized the operation of three shovel excavators controlled by one person, which has played a great role in promoting the construction and development of the entire intelligent mine. Sweden's BOLIDEN-Garpenberg mine intelligence and standardization are also very high, only the mineral processing automation system invested tens of millions of dollars, and the underground also fully realized wireless network coverage, the entire underground more than 150 wireless base stations to collect data.

Among the domestic mines, the Ashele copper mine in Xinjiang, the Sanshandao gold mine in Shandong, and the Pulang Copper mine in Yunnan represent the higher level of the current intelligent mine construction in China.

Shandong Gold Group Sanshandao Gold mine director Du Yunlong: Sanshandao Gold mine is located in the beautiful Laizhou Bay, is the only submarine mining gold mine in China, is currently the highest level of mechanization and overall equipment of the modern gold mine, in the digital, intelligent construction has begun to take shape, living in the leading position in the country. Sanshandao Gold Mine started the digital mine construction project in 2007, and has made some achievements in digitization of geological resources, automation of production process, integration of safety management and intelligent decision support.

At present, the Sanshandao Gold mine is facing the challenges of seabed mining and deep well mining, so we layout the construction of intelligent mines at all levels, relying on national science and technology projects, with the University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and other safe and comprehensive establishment of intelligent mine construction technology system, the preparation and implementation of intelligent mine construction planning.

The overall plan of intelligent mine construction in Sanshandao Gold Mine, supported by the Internet of Things platform, includes three levels: intelligent production system, intelligent production management and intelligent operation decision. This plan has laid a solid theoretical foundation for the implementation of intelligent mine.

Guo Qinghe, architect of Bombardier Transportation Engineering Services (Beijing) Co., LTD. : The El Teniente mine in Chile can achieve uninterrupted transportation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with a load of 2,400 tons per train and a value of more than $70,000. The unmanned transport and driving system has resulted in a 138% increase in production at the mine, saving significant money on personnel maintenance and training.

Kang Chunde, general manager of Inner Mongolia Mining Co., LTD., China National Gold Group: In recent years, with the rapid development of science and technology in China, especially the rapid development of mining software and the improvement of enterprise digital management concept, domestic mines have the conditions for the construction of digital mines. At present, some mines in China have realized the digital control of single or several joint business modules such as mine perforation, blasting, model updating and ore blending. However, there is not yet a complete set of systematic digital mining centralized control system from the geological basis to the mining control, from the enterprise's macro production plan to the specific site construction links. At the same time, the analysis and decision-making of production data need more attention and development.

With the construction of smart mines as the carrier and the goal of digitization and management of mining and beneficiation, CICC Inner Mongolia realizes digital control of mining and beneficiation process by using information technology, intelligence and Internet technology, and forms a deep integration of three-dimensional office, information sharing, market analysis and cost control. In terms of mining digitization, the mining control system includes annual mining and stripping construction plan, monthly mining and stripping construction plan, rock piercing and blasting system, production control platform, three-dimensional equipped mining platform, mining mes system and file database; Mineral processing information system has three conditions: first, the use of large advanced equipment to lay the foundation for the realization of automatic control; Second, it is equipped with advanced instruments to provide guarantee for intelligent control; The third is to establish a database to provide a basis for intelligent analysis. Management digitization is based on the production and operation data to establish an enterprise information management system covering the production and operation rights process, business and financial integration, information flow through, solidify the management concept in the work flow, to achieve reliable safety and environmental protection management, efficient production process management, accurate financial management and whole process cost management.

Zhang Hua, General Manager of Mining Industry of Masteel Group: The main practices of Masteel's smart mine include the following aspects: First, it has formulated the "Three-year Plan for Digital Mine" and constructed the "five-level structure" of equipment operation layer, process control layer, production execution layer, enterprise management layer and decision support layer; The second is to use the Internet and the Internet of Things to promote the mining industry cloud computing platform, and use this platform to build an information infrastructure platform to promote the deep integration of information and industrialization of the mining sector; At present, basically more than 70% of the company's 18 production lines have reached digitalization, especially in the field of mineral processing automation and Dandong measurement and control cooperation, 5 selection plants have all realized automation; Fourth, the realization of underground unmanned mining and underground unmanned driving, this system in June this year, many people at the site to observe, a real sense of the realization of the entire line from ore to automatic transportation automation; Fifth, the entire system and plate to achieve ERP, truly realize the production, sales, procurement, finance, performance management system integration, from the business, finance, management integration.

What's the future of technology?

Zhang Yuansheng, director of the Intelligent Mine Center of Beijing Mining and Metallurgy Science and Technology Group Company: It was too early to talk about unmanned mines, but the development of intelligent technology to the current level has reached a new stage of promoting the construction of unmanned mines or unmanned mining. At present, the national "13th Five-Year" key research and development plan has continued to establish projects to support the research of unmanned mining technology. It can be said that at present, from the aspects of technology, equipment and basic conditions of mines, many mines have gradually had the possibility of building unmanned mines.

Yu Guizhen, founder of Beijing Tage Zhixing Technology Co., LTD. : The driverless transformation of mining transport vehicles will be a big market. Especially in open-pit mining areas, the driving route of transport vehicles is basically point-to-point, which is especially suitable for unmanned driving. The mining autonomous robot we are now developing and testing will become the operator of remotely controlled vehicles, so only need to retrofit the traditional vehicle to install the autonomous robot, such intelligent transportation will be much cheaper than directly buying a new autonomous vehicle.

Zhou Yinlun, Chairman of Geology and Mining Equipment Branch of China Mining Federation: Everyone has their own different understanding and opinions on the wisdom of smart mines. Every miner should become a promoter and practitioner of transforming traditional mining with information technology. For mining enterprises, especially large-scale mining enterprises, they should actively explore and practice new mining models such as intensification, continuity and remote control, and promote mining informatization must also be the focus of mining enterprises' transformation and upgrading.