Analysis of the development trend of China's iron ore mining technology in the "13th Five-Year Plan"



With the continuous advancement of mining modernization, mineral resources are constantly consumed, and the scale of mining is constantly expanding, and the expansion of mining scale drives the continuous development of mining technology. At present, due to the continuous sharp decline in iron ore prices, the development of domestic iron ore enterprises is facing severe challenges, the deterioration of resource conditions makes it more difficult to mine, and the development of social environment also puts forward new requirements for mine development. Therefore, during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, in order to cope with the changes in the industry situation and adapt to the requirements of The Times, it is necessary to continuously develop mining technology, reduce costs and increase efficiency through the application of new technologies and technological transformation measures, improve the competitiveness of enterprises, and steadily improve the level of mining technology in China.

1. Development status

After decades of development, especially more than a decade in the new century, the mining technology level of China's iron ore industry has made obvious progress.

(1) Open pit mining

In the open pit mining, the mining process is more mature, the mode of transportation is more diversified and efficient, with the application of steep mining, continuous semi-continuous mining process, mobile crushing station, steep slope railway transportation, vibration feeder loading station, automobile - elevator and other technologies, waste free mining technology, mining digitization, intelligent and other advanced technologies. Mine production efficiency has been significantly improved.

(1) Staging mining technology. Compared with full-range mining, phased mining has the advantages of provincial investment, quick effect, and less infrastructure investment to reach production as soon as possible. Some large steeply inclined open-pit mines in China have successfully realized the stage mining technology, such as Nanfen Iron mine, Shuichang Iron mine, Qidashan Iron Mine and so on.

(2) Intermittent continuous transportation technology. The discontinuous production process has been successfully applied in the deep concave open pit mine in China. The system is mainly composed of two parts, the discontinuous part refers to the automobile or locomotive transportation, and the continuous transportation part refers to the crusher tape machine and the soil discharge machine. With the development of open pit mining in China to deep mining, the significance of this technology is becoming more and more prominent. At present, the technology has been applied in Qidashan Iron ore, Shuichang Iron ore, Donganshan Iron ore, Dagushan Iron ore, Nanfen Iron ore and so on.

(3) High step mining. Step height is the main parameter of open-pit stope, increasing step height is conducive to improving the efficiency of penetration and explosion, simplifying and shortening the transportation line, increasing the amount of stage ore and improving the continuity of operation. In recent years, with the gradual popularization of large shovel equipment, high step mining technology is more and more favored by mining enterprises, the domestic open pit iron ore step height generally reaches 12 meters, Qidashan iron mine step height has reached 15 meters.

(4) Steep mining. Since the 1970s, metal mines in China began to carry out experimental research on steep mining technology. During the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period, steep mining was included in the national science and technology research project, and carried out large-scale industrial test research in Nanfen open-pit mine, which comprehensively and systematically revealed the technological characteristics of steep mining, laid the technical foundation for the production and construction of Nanfen Iron mine, and provided practical experience for the technical transformation, new construction and expansion of large and medium-sized open-pit mines in China. Steep mining has been widely applied in open-pit iron mines in China because of its advantages such as small initial stripping amount, small amount of infrastructure works, short construction period and short final slope exposure time.

2. Underground mining

Underground mining technology is a technical field that has carried out the most extensive scientific research work and achieved the most scientific and technological achievements in more than 60 years since 1949. A large number of technical achievements have been made in the aspects of tunneling, mining methods, mine filling, etc. With these achievements as technical support, modern underground mines such as Meishan Iron Mine and Jingtieshan Iron Mine have been built. Therefore, it promotes the rapid development of underground mining technology in our country, and makes the technology of some mines reach the international advanced level.

(1) Develop modes of transportation. After years of development, the domestic underground iron ore is mainly developed by the joint development of shaft and slope. At the same time, some mines still adopt other development methods in combination with their own characteristics. Taking Dahongshan Iron Mine as an example, the mine adopts the joint development mode of inclined shaft taping machine - trackless ramp - blind shaft to replace shaft upgrading, reduce infrastructure investment, and be innovative, reaching the international advanced level.

(2) Mining method. The backward horizontal filling and shallow hole retaining mining methods have been basically eliminated in iron mines, and sublevel caving without bottom pillar is generally adopted in production mines, and the stage height is gradually increased, reaching 132 meters in Meishan Iron Mine and 140 meters in Chengchao Iron mine. The height of the sections and the route spacing were also increased to 15 meters ×20 meters or even 18 meters ×20 meters. In recent years, with the continuous expansion of underground mining scale and more stringent environmental protection policies, the application of large-diameter and deep-hole open-stope method and sublevel open-stope subsequent filling mining method in iron mines has become more and more.

(3) Digital mining technology. Meishan Iron Mine as the representative, through the integration of information and automation, break through the traditional mine production management, remote management, visual monitoring, digital decision-making and other effects. It is of great significance to improve production efficiency, change production safety, improve working environment and promote green coordinated mining.

Second, there are problems

Although China's mining technology has made obvious progress, there are still some problems, mainly reflected in the uneven development of mining technology, the low level of digital mines, mining equipment for technical development is not enough support.

(1) Uneven development of mining technology

China's vast territory, the national economic development level is very different, the level of mining development is also very different. The advanced large-scale mining technology represented by Qidashan Iron mine, Yuanjiacun Iron mine and Shuichang Iron mine has basically reached the international advanced level, while in the less developed areas, the mining technology is still very backward, with low production efficiency, low recovery rate, high dilution rate and serious waste of resources.

(2) The level of digital mining is much different from that of foreign countries

So far, China's digital mining has made great achievements, but compared with the mining developed countries, the overall level is still very low, is still in the initial stage of development. For example, remote control mining, unmanned working faces and even unmanned mines have become a reality in Canada, Sweden, the United States, Australia and other countries, but China has not yet realized. The United States has successfully developed a large-scale mining scheduling system, which uses the latest computer, wireless data communication, scheduling optimization and global satellite positioning system technology to carry out real-time computer control and management of open-pit production. Some underground mines in addition to the fixed equipment has been automated, scraper, drilling truck, underground car all realized driverless, workers just on the ground remote control of these equipment, you can ensure the smooth progress of mining operations.

(3) The support of mining equipment for technological development is not enough

The development of mining technology needs to be promoted through the synchronous updating of mining equipment, such as open-pit mining technology must be matched with large-scale shovel, the realization of digital technology needs intelligent equipment to support, but at present, China's mining equipment is still mainly introduced, digestion, absorption and innovation, new equipment independent research and development, large-scale and system integration ability is poor. Industrial manufacturing capacity is weak, can not adapt to the upgrading of mining technology, to a certain extent, hinder the advance of domestic mining technology.

Third, the "13th Five-Year" mining technology development trend

(1) Development direction

1. The change of macro situation brings both opportunities and challenges to the development of mining technology

Over the past decade, China's iron ore industry has experienced a stage of rapid expansion of investment and production capacity, which has also promoted the significant development of mining technology. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, economic growth has slowed down, market demand has declined, the relationship between supply and demand has reversed, and the development of the iron ore industry is facing great pressure, on the one hand, it means that investment in mining technology research and development will tend to be tight, on the other hand, in the downturn of the industry, enterprises need to reduce production costs through the application of new processes and new technologies, improve production efficiency and enterprise competitiveness.

2. Mining technology is developing in the direction of high efficiency, green and digital

During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the development of mining technology will continue to trend towards the simplification of production processes, the continuity of production processes, the centralization of mining operations, and the digitization, intelligence and unmanned operation processes. In the process of development, it is necessary to adhere to independent innovation as the driving force for the sustainable development of technology, energy saving and green manufacturing as an important starting point for technological transformation, the deep integration of industrialization and information technology as an important measure of technological progress, and the industrialization of technological achievements as an important support for the strength of iron mining industry.

(2) Key technologies

During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the development of mining technology needs to be closely combined with the guidance of industry macro policies, changes in resource conditions, protection of the ecological environment and social impact, so as to adapt to and promote the progress of the entire industry, therefore, mining technology in the "13th Five-Year Plan" period to focus on the following aspects of development.

1. Open-pit to underground mining and open-pit - underground combined mining technology

With the end of a number of open-pit mines such as Ekou Iron mine and Malanzhuang Iron mine, they have been transferred to underground mining, and the technology of open-pit to underground mining or open-pit to underground combined mining has fallen behind the actual needs of mine production. The research of open-pit to underground mining technology involves many technical problems, especially the transition problem of open-pit to underground mining, the mining problem of isolated layer and the rock mechanics problem of open-pit to underground mining or open-pit to underground combined mining, so it is urgent to increase the research during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.

2. Deep mining technology

With the depletion of shallow resources in China, iron ore mining has gradually shifted to deeper ones. Most of the newly discovered iron ore resources are deep ore deposits, such as Dataigou Iron ore mine, Chentaigou Iron ore mine and Sishanling Iron Mine in Liaoning Province. The buried depth of ore bodies has exceeded 1000 meters. Different from shallow mining activities, deep mining has many special laws and disasters. The prominent feature is the "three high", that is, special mining technical conditions such as high ground stress, high well temperature and high water pressure, which may lead to stope roof collapse, roadway instability, high temperature and high heat, ventilation difficulties and other problems, resulting in the reduction of efficiency of lifting, ventilation and drainage and the increase of cost. This requires that mining technology and equipment must adapt to this change, carry out in-depth research on the key mining technology of iron ore deep resources, and provide technical support for more and more iron mines to enter deep mining.

3. Digital mining technology

The digital mine is the digital representation and understanding of the whole mine, with the various application technology software of the mine as the tool, with the efficient and automated data acquisition system as the means, and finally achieve a high degree of information, automation, high efficiency, and even unmanned mining and intelligent mining. This is a complex and huge project involving many technical fields and the organization of production departments. Its application potential in mining engineering design, production scheduling, system monitoring and disaster prediction needs to be deeply explored, and it will also be the future development direction of iron mines in China, including digital geological modeling system and digital ore deposit modeling system. Mining simulation technology under virtual conditions; Open pit and underground mine communication, positioning and navigation, information rapid processing and process monitoring technology; Intelligent control and control technology of mining equipment.

4. Green mining technology

Green mining technology includes low grade ore deposit mining technology and waste free mining technology. China's iron ore resources are mainly poor ore. For low-grade ore deposits, such as ultra-poor vanadium titanium magnetite in Chengde area, mining by traditional mining methods has high production cost and serious environmental damage. It is worth further research on how to utilize low-grade ore and difficult-to-mine body. In addition, in the process of mining, it not only causes damage to the natural environment, but also produces a lot of waste gas, wastewater and waste residue. Waste free mining is to minimize the output and discharge of waste, improve the comprehensive utilization rate of resources, reduce or eliminate the negative impact of mineral resources development technology. In the long run, with the improvement of social environmental protection requirements, green mining technology will be one of the important research topics in the sustainable development of mining industry.