Intelligent Mining of Underground Mine

On October 15, 2022, the world’s first mining TBM with large negative slope and ultra-small turning radius - "Zijin Jianshe" was assembled at Duobaoshan Copper Mine in Heilongjiang Province, with an excavation diameter of 6.74 m, a full length of 150 m and an installed power of 3,980 kW.

After the introduction of TBM tunneling technology, a highly mechanized and automated tunneling mode was achieved. The monthly tunneling progress of the project reaches 503 m, with the maximum daily progress of 34 m. The tunneling efficiency is 3-10 times that of the conventional drilling and blasting method. With the application of the technology, the transformation of the mine from conventional manual tunneling to intelligent tunneling has been effectively promoted.

For the intelligent drilling operation of underground metal mines, the focus is on the remote control of drilling jumbos and carry-scrapers. With 5G network, the real-time and accurate operation of surface remote-controlled underground drilling jumbos and carry-scrapers has been achieved in the Shanxi Zijin Underground Mining Project. The remote-controlled intelligent carry-scraper is used to complete rock drilling and shovel loading operations, effectively reducing the operation risk and the number of operators.

The underground intelligent positioning system, mainly based on UWB (ultra-wideband) positioning technology and Wi-Fi communication network and combined with a variety of sensors, achieves the high-precision positioning. In addition, 5G slice low-latency link layer technology is introduced to realize network slicing and low-latency forwarding by integrating the time-division multiplexing (TDM) and statistical multiplexing technology. The high-precision positioning function allows managers to learn the specific location and dynamics of downhole personnel in real time.