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Stephen Chen

Engineers are developing a new generation of robotic mining equipment to cut the cost of extracting coal and to make more seams of the fuel economically viable as China tries to produce enough energy to power the world's second-largest economy.
The technology is also aimed at reducing the number of miners killed in the world's most dangerous coal industry.
Experts said increased automation of coal production was inevitable, but the authorities might fear unrest if job losses in the mining industry were too severe.
The Northern Heavy Industries Group in Shenyang claimed on its website last month that it had built the world's first full-face tunnel boring machine to cut coal.
Similar technology is usually limited to tunnelling projects such as construction of subway systems.
The company said the machine could cut 3km along a seam of coal each month. By way of comparison, it takes 100 about a year to advance 1km.
The 300-tonne machine runs automatically with laser sensors and is remote-controlled.
Coal is cut, collected and transported out of the tunnel while ceilings and props are built at the same time with little, if any, human intervention. Factory tests have been completed and the machine will be handed over for use in a large mine owned by the Shenhua Group, the largest coal producer on the mainland.
The boring technology is one of several large robotic mining machines developed by state-owned companies with funding from the central government. The Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group announced last year the deployment of the world's largest coal-cutting "robot" at a mine in Chongqing .
It is controlled by one worker on the surface with clicks of a mouse and can help to extract 10 million tonnes of coal each year.
The 11 million yuan (HK$13.8 million) machine had reduced the number of miners at the pit by two-thirds while doubling the mining operation's annual output, according to a report by Chongqing Daily.
Sun Yanjing, a professor at the Chinese University of Mining and Technology, said these machines had not yet been perfected, but he expected they would replace large numbers of miners in the industry within a decade. "Some fundamental changes will occur in five to 10 years," he said.
Coal mining companies and government officials have a strong incentive to automate more of the mining industry, according to analysts. Officials are often removed from their posts and coal mine owners jailed after fatal accidents at pits. Higher wages are also adding to production costs.
But Sun said there were technical and social problems to consider. "Some Chinese coal seams have extremely sophisticated geophysical structures that can lead the machine, however smart it is, the wrong way.
"In such circumstances, only an experienced coal miner can judge how to avoid rocks and find coal."
The mainland also has more than a million miners working at the coal face and large job losses could affect social stability.
Professor Liu Shaowei, a coal mining technology expert at Henan Polytechnic University, agreed that many miners could be replaced by machines within a decade, but the technology would need regular human maintenance and supervision.
"A coal mining tunnel is a hazardous working environment. Even the toughest machines will need adjustments and fixes from time to time," he said.
According to the central government, 1,049 people died or went missing in mining accidents last year, down more than 24 per cent from the year before.
 


Coal mining 'robots' cut costs and risks but threaten jobs

The global coal industry is shifting towards automation but human workers will still be needed to assess complex geophysical terrain, experts say. Photo: Xinhua

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China

Engineers are developing a new generation of robotic mining equipment to cut the cost of extracting coal and to make more seams of the fuel economically viable.


Coal mining 'robots' cut costs and risks but threaten jobs

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Engineers are developing a new generation of robotic mining equipment to cut the cost of extracting coal and to make more seams of the fuel economically viable.

Engineers are developing a new generation of robotic mining equipment to cut the cost of extracting coal and to make more seams of the fuel economically viable.