There is no dispute about the mining industry in the 21st century. It is to build a new intelligent model to realize the digitization of resources and mining environment, the intelligentization of technology and equipment, the visualization of production process control, the networking of information transmission, and production management and decision-making. Scientific. Intelligence has also become the inevitable way for the transformation and upgrading of the mining industry.

Let's take a look at an excellent smart mine.

Kiruna Iron Mine, Sweden

Kiruna Iron Mine is located in northern Sweden, 200km deep into the Arctic Circle, and is one of the highest latitude mineral bases in the world. At the same time, Kiruna Iron Mine is currently the largest underground mine in the world, and it is also the only super-large iron mine currently being mined in Europe.

The Kiruna Iron Mine has basically realized unmanned intelligent mining. In the underground work surface, apart from the maintenance workers, almost no other workers can be seen. Almost all operations are completed by the remote computer centralized control system, and the degree of automation is very high. .

The intelligence of Kiruna iron ore mainly benefits from the use of large-scale machinery and equipment, intelligent remote control systems, and modern management systems. Highly automated and intelligent mining systems and equipment are the key to ensuring safe and efficient mining.

1) Development:

Kiruna Iron Mine adopts the joint development of shaft + ramp. The mine has 3 shafts for ventilation, ore and waste rock lifting. Personnel, equipment and materials are mainly transported from the ramp with trackless equipment. The main lifting shaft is located at the bottom wall of the ore body. So far, the mining face and the main transportation system have been moved down 6 times, and the current main transportation level is at the level of 1045m.

2) Drilling charge and blasting:

The roadway excavation adopts a rock drilling rig, which is equipped with a three-dimensional electronic measuring instrument, which can realize precise positioning of the borehole. The stope is drilled with the simbaw469 remote-controlled rock drilling rig produced by Atlas Co., Ltd., which uses a laser system for accurate positioning, is unmanned, and can operate continuously in 24 hours.

3) Remote loading, transportation and lifting of ore:

The drilling, loading, and lifting of the Kiruna Iron Mine stope have all realized intelligent and automated operations, and the rock drilling rigs and scrapers have realized unmanned driving. The ore loading adopts the Toro2500E remote control scraper produced by Sandvik/Tom Lock, with a single efficiency of 500t/h.

The underground transportation system has two types: belt transportation and track automatic transportation. Tracked automatic transportation is generally composed of 8 trains of mine cars. The mine cars are automatic bottom unloading trucks for continuous loading and unloading. The belt conveyor automatically transports the ore from the crushing station to the metering device, and completes the loading and unloading with the shaft skip. The process is controlled remotely.

4) Support and reinforcement technology of remote control concrete injection technology:

The roadway support adopts the combined support of shotcrete bolt and mesh, which is completed by a remote-controlled concrete spraying machine, and the bolt and steel mesh are installed using bolt trolley.