The development of computing, monitoring and control technologies in the past several decades has resulted in an increasing interest in the potential of mining automation in Chinas massive min-ing industry.
Eliminating human from mining process and enhancing operational efficiency are the major goals. Over 90% of Chinas coal is mined underground where ventilation is essential to maintain productive and sustainable condition, it is expected that these new technologies will fur-ther improve coal mining safety and productivity. Over 70 companies have started using this so-called intelligent or unmanned mining, among them, Huangling Mining Co. which has been ex-perimenting this system at two underground coal operations in Shaanxi Province since 2015. Re-sults have shown great potential for this technology to improve mine safety and increase efficiency. This paper introduces this intelligent system and addresses lessons learned at Huangling.
CITATION:Yan, Z, Tien, J C, Wang, Y and Chang, X, 2019. Intelligent mining at Huangling Mine, with special mention of ventilation safeguard system, in Proceedings Australian Mine Ventilation Conference 2019, pp 272282 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).