Advanced technology and development approach of automatic underground mining of metal deposits

Inco, in cooperation with other relevant institutions, also started research and development of an Underground Blasting Automatic Charge project (ELAP) in 2000. The prototype system passed underground industrial trials in 2002 and the technology is being further refined [16,17].

The Kiruna Mine of the Swedish mining company LKAB started to implement automatic control technology for rail transportation in the early 1970s, and since the late 1990s has successively adopted remote control drilling RIGS and remote control LHD technology [18,19].

Automated mining technology has also been successfully applied at the Finsch diamond mine in De Beers, South Africa [20]. In the engineering design of the mine's open-pit conversion to underground mining in 2000, Sandvik's Sandvik Tamrock automated mining technology system was used for an investment of US $20 million, including the design, construction, equipment acquisition and installation of automated trucking systems. The mine uses a combined caving drawing, LHD and truck loading system, in which the truck system is remotely controlled from the ground and connected to the mine backbone communication network via a radio frequency system (MineLan). The application of truck automatic control system can improve the speed of underground truck operation and equipment productivity. Surface operators can operate multiple trucks at the same time, significantly reducing the number of underground personnel, which greatly improves mine safety and increases labor productivity. Sandvik Tamrock is currently implementing the LHD automated system at the Finsch mine with a planned investment of US $41 million.

In the United States, Carnegie Mellon University, funded by NASA and Joy, conducted research on the automatic positioning and navigation technology of continuous shearer in underground coal mines, and developed research results that could be commercialized [21]. The University of Colorado studied the stereographic imaging model of underground ore burst in order to effectively control LHD automatic loading [22].

In addition, in Saskatchewan, Canada, uranium mines are operated by remote control to protect miners from radiation; At Mount Essa Mine in Australia and some deep mining mines in South Africa, miners are protected from the heat and humid air of deep Wells by remote control. In Chile, Codelco's El Teniente mine used remote control to protect miners from rockbursts. [23]

In China, companies such as Meishan Iron Mine have considered using remote control drilling RIGS to free equipment operators from the high-intensity noise generated during drilling operations.

Gu Desheng, Yun Qingxia and Wang Yunmin, when elaborating the development trend of science and technology of underground mining of metal deposits, believe that unmanned mining will be one of the important fields in the development of mining technology in China in the 21st century [24~26].

The Ministry of Science and Technology has listed underground unmanned mining technology and related equipment as one of the research directions and contents of the first batch of special topics launched in the "863" plan during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, which further indicates the development trend of unmanned mining technology in China.

2. Advanced technology of underground automatic mining

At present, the unmanned mining technology at home and abroad is still in the initial stage of "unmanned mining". At this stage, the core technology of unmanned mining is still automatic mining technology, which mainly includes key technologies such as data acquisition and supervisory control (SCADA), remote control of mining equipment and digital communication, and there is no obvious breakthrough in mining process design and roadway layout. The maintenance of underground unmanned equipment, the handling of accidents, and the interaction between surface remote control personnel and underground operators all need to be further studied. 

The progress of information and communication technology will certainly promote the development of unmanned mining technology from the current automatic mining or remote control mining with traditional mining process automation as the core to the "unmanned mining" with advanced sensors and detection and monitoring systems, intelligent mining equipment, high-speed digital communication networks, and new mining process integration as the main technical characteristics. Therefore, the cutting-edge technology of unmanned underground mining or automatic mining of metal deposits mainly includes the following four aspects.

2.1 Advanced sensing, detection and monitoring technology

Detection and monitoring technology and instruments of downhole environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, air components, stope ground pressure, roadway surrounding rock deformation and other variables; The technique and method of real-time analysis of the lumpiness and its distribution, the grade and distribution of useful minerals, etc. Spatial distance recognition, positioning and navigation technologies based on underground environment, such as buried line navigation system, passive light guide system, active light guide system, wall tracking system, inertial navigation technology and equipment, are the prerequisite for intelligent mining equipment operation and process control. Therefore, the development of underground automatic mining needs to research and develop the corresponding advanced sensing technology and detection and monitoring technology.