February 11, 2021 - The People's Government of Shanxi Province, Huawei Technologies, Jinneng Holding Group, and Shanxi Cloud Era Technology have opened an Intelligent Mining Innovation Lab in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China for coal mines.

Huawei, in partnership with the Government of Shanxi Province, Shanxi Cloud Era Technology, and Jinneng Holding Group, have opened a mining innovation lab that will explore new uses of technology at coal mines.

Through this lab, coal mines in Shanxi Province will be able to reduce staffing in fully mechanised and intelligent mining scenarios by up to 60%.

Huawei announces opening of an Intelligent Mining Innovation Lab in Taiyuan for coal mines.

Photo: Brücke-Osteuropa

Additionally, the lab will help the mines explore new uses of ICT technologies including wireless industrial control networks, industrial optical ring networks, and cloud computing and improve intrinsic safety.

Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei said that the company expects to combine ICT with coal mining technologies to support digital and intelligent transformation across the coal industry.

“In 2020, we illuminated one coal mine, one iron and steel plant, and one port. Over the next two to three years, we aim to illuminate hundreds of coal mines, iron and steel plants, and ports.”

A total of 220 ICT and coal mining experts at the Intelligent Mining Innovation Lab will seek to make breakthroughs in various areas.

These areas include information networks, automation enablement, intelligent sensing technologies, and big data generated by coal mines.

The Intelligent Mining Innovation Lab is the result of a partnership between Huawei and the People’s Government of Shanxi Province.

It will make breakthroughs in scientific research to resolve pain points in the industry which include high-risk production, poor work conditions, and difficult-to-manage mining equipment.

At the lab, Huawei will continue to innovate with partners and make breakthroughs in technologies that can be used in mining pits, including self-cleaning cameras, low-frequency wireless transmission, and risk prediction technologies.

These technologies will support usage of robots in key scenarios and unmanned operations in select areas.

The lab will also enable coal mines in Shanxi to reduce the number of workers going down to mining pits each shift by 10% to 20%.