Dongjiahe Coal Mine of Chenghe Mining: Injecting New Vitality Into an Old Mine Through Innovation

Dongjiahe Coal Mine of Chenghe Mining consistently regards technological innovation as a fundamental approach to enhance corporate core competitiveness and mine safety assurance capacity. Taking “ensuring safety, boosting efficiency and stimulating driving forces” as its starting point, and targeting practical production difficulties and restrictive bottlenecks as breakthrough points, the mine keeps accelerating the construction of smart mines and fully advances the development of the “Four Modernizations”.

Mechanization Ignites a New Engine for Safe and Efficient Operation

In advancing mechanization, the coal mine has broken traditional operation modes and made bold attempts in designing and optimizing supporting equipment to promote mechanized equipment and automated systems. Self‑moving belt tailpieces have been deployed in coal‑mining and roadheading roadways, greatly reducing workers’ labor intensity. Pneumatic crawler flatbed material transporters have been put into service in heading and transportation roadways, solving the long‑distance track‑free transportation challenge underground, lowering labor intensity while improving production efficiency and safety factors.

Meanwhile, the mine has carried out the “mining revolution”. Through technical innovation, it has developed and modified a device for separate loading and transportation of coal and gangue. The equipment prevents rock from mixing into raw coal during mining and raises the calorific value of raw coal by 600 kilocalories directly.

Automation Guides the New Trend of Technological Innovation

Plagued by long operational lines, numerous links and high safety risks in power supply, drainage and transportation systems, the mine draws on advanced external experience and pursues “replacing manpower with mechanization and cutting staff with intelligent technologies”. Leveraging network, information and automatic‑control technologies to integrate mechanization with information‑control systems, it has upgraded 12 underground and surface coal‑flow facilities and over 2,000 meters of belt conveyor systems. Intelligent centralized control and remote monitoring for fixed posts are realized on core coal transportation systems. This move cuts 21 on‑site positions and saves around 2 million RMB in labor costs annually.

Informatization Collects New Data for Precise Management

To meet the demands of intelligent mines and smart mining areas, an intelligent centralized‑control center has been built. It integrates multiple systems including dispatching command, smart mining, centralized control of auxiliary production, safety monitoring and hydrological observation. An intelligent mine framework of “One Core + Two Centers + Three Platforms + N Sub‑systems” has taken shape.

One‑key start‑stop of production equipment, rapid transmission of production data and dynamic status perception are achieved. Centralized control and high‑definition remote monitoring between surface and underground sites provide intelligent support for safe, high‑efficiency mine operation.

Intelligence Accelerates High‑quality Development

Striving for intelligence with fewer or zero on‑site operators, the mine makes steady progress to unlock safe, efficient and intensive production capacity. Centralized‑control retrofits for compressed‑air systems, overhead man‑riding devices and underground district substations enable unattended operation of these posts.

To cut the quantity of equipment trains in working‑face gate roads and ease train relocation, long‑distance centralized hydraulic fluid supply has been implemented in No.3 Mining District. This integrated system features intelligent variable‑frequency centralized control for emulsion pumps, pressure monitoring, automatic fluid replenishment, multi‑stage filtration, emulsion concentration detection & automatic proportioning, equipment status monitoring and fault alarming. It realizes intensive layout, intelligent control and standardized maintenance of the fluid‑supply system, putting the safety concept “safer with fewer personnel, safer with no personnel on‑site” into real practice.

Going forward, the mine will sort out and inspect all special‑purpose equipment and establish a long‑term mechanism for phasing‑out and upgrading such machinery to raise the overall mechanization level. It will further adopt advanced technologies including surface directional drilling for regional governance under Ordovician limestone confined‑water mining and flexible mesh support to improve soft‑power capacity. Initiatives such as intelligent rapid heading faces and intelligent rapid rock roadway heading systems will be rolled out to deepen the “Four Modernizations” program. These efforts will keep the 40‑year‑old mine operating at high performance and contribute to the high‑quality development of Chenghe Mining.