Focusing on the core pain points and development needs of the coal mining industry, we focus on details and empower precisely, professionally providing comprehensive, efficient and customized overall solutions for coal mining technologies and safety control. With safety as the bottom line, efficiency as the core and green development as the orientation, we rely on strong technical strength and rich practical experience to build full-process, integrated core solutions for coal mining and safety control, helping customers achieve safe, efficient, green and low-carbon mining, and safeguarding the high-quality development of the coal mining industry with professionalism and responsibility.
1 Coal Mining Technologies
1.1 Blasting Mining
1880s – Early 1960s
Blasting mining is a relatively backward coal mining technology, formally known as blasting coal mining technology. Its core process is: coal cutting by blasting, followed mainly by manual coal loading, coal conveying with conveyors, and roof support using single hydraulic props (or metal friction props).
This process is essentially labor-intensive and highly dependent on manual work, often described as
“open-flame blasting for coal cutting, manual coal loading, and human/animal-powered transportation”.
Due to technical limitations, blasting mining has three prominent problems: first, serious resource waste, with a working face recovery rate usually only 30%–40%; second, extremely high labor intensity and harsh working environment; third, high safety risks with frequent roof accidents and gas accidents. Overall, this technology is inefficient and provides poor safety assurance.
1.2 Conventional Mechanized Mining
1960s – 1970s
Conventional mechanized mining, or conventional mining for short, refers to a coal mining technology that uses machinery for coal cutting and loading, conveyors for coal haulage, and single hydraulic props (or metal friction props) for roof support.
With the application of shearers, coal mining processes entered the mechanization stage. A typical supporting system was formed, featuring single-drum shearers for coal cutting, flexible scraper conveyors for coal haulage, and single props for roof support, marking the basic formation of conventional mechanized mining. Compared with blasting mining, conventional mining realized mechanized coal cutting and loading, but the support operation still required manual work, belonging to partially mechanized mining with limited mechanization.
1.3 Fully Mechanized Mining
Early 2000s – 2010
Fully mechanized mining, or fully mechanized mining for short, refers to a coal mining technology that uses machinery for coal cutting, loading and haulage, and self-advancing hydraulic supports for automatic roof support.
Its technical core lies in the “three-machine matching”: coordinated operation of the shearer, scraper conveyor and hydraulic support. Compared with conventional mining, fully mechanized mining realized automation of the support process — workers operate under the protection of “iron pillars” formed by hydraulic supports, greatly improving safety. With the application of electro-hydraulic control technology, fully mechanized mining achieved full mechanization and automatic linkage of the whole mining process, representing a modern, high-yield, high-efficiency, safe and reliable direction of coal mining.
1.4 Intelligent Mining
2010 – Present
Intelligent mining is a new mining model with an intelligent dispatch center as the core, integrating coordinated intelligence of the whole system including mining and tunneling. Its technical closed-loop covers four levels:
Driven by 5G+AI, combined with transparent geological precise modeling and the green low-carbon concept, it finally achieves fewer-person/unmanned underground operation and intrinsic mine safety.
2 Tunneling Technologies
2.1 Stage 1: Manual and Early Blasting Stage (Before 1950s)
Early tunneling mainly relied on manual pick excavation. A small amount of rock was treated by chiseling and fuse blasting. In the early days of the People’s Republic of China, electric drills and pneumatic drills were widely used, entering semi-coal-rock and rock roadway tunneling. Blasting technology was gradually improved, such as the adoption of pot-hole cutting. Loading completely depended on manual shoveling, with extremely high labor intensity.
2.2 Stage 2: Mechanized Blasting Stage (1950s – 1970s)
This stage took the drill-blasting method as the core, with continuous innovation in tunneling technology. Since 1953, instantaneous detonators and blasters were widely used, and cutting methods such as wedge cutting and parallel kerf cutting as well as multi-driller drilling were promoted. In the 1970s, millisecond blasting was successfully tested, realizing one-time full-section blasting and significantly improving safety and efficiency. Mechanized loading began to emerge. Soviet-style coal loaders and rock loaders were introduced in 1951, and scraper rock loaders became mainstream after 1970, greatly improving the mechanization level of loading. In terms of support, timber supports and cement supports were gradually replaced by metal supports and bolt support. Bolt-shotcrete technology was trial-used in 1968.
2.3 Stage 3: Initial Stage of Comprehensive Mechanization (Late 1970s – 1990s)
To match fully mechanized coal mining, coal roadway roadheaders such as Austria’s AM‑50 and products from Japan were introduced from 1979, replacing drill-blasting with milling technology and launching comprehensive mechanized roadway tunneling. Meanwhile, mechanized operation lines with scraper rock loaders were widely established, forming various mechanized operation modes for level roadways, inclined shafts and other roadways. By 1985, the mechanization rate of tunneling and loading increased to 64%, but the drill-blasting method remained the basic technology.
2.4 Stage 4: Rapid Tunneling and Complete Equipment Stage (Early 2000s – 2020s)
To address the imbalance between mining and tunneling, breakthroughs were made in rapid tunneling technology. Four major types of rapid tunneling systems were formed, led by continuous miners, bolter-miners, roadheaders and full-face tunnel boring machines for coal mines. Technological innovations included dual-roadway tunneling, simultaneous digging and bolting, and spatio-temporal multi-dimensional synchronous rapid tunneling, breaking the traditional “dig first, support later” mode. Bolt support equipment evolved from single drills to one-key operation process drills and drill clusters, greatly improving operation safety. The average roadway forming speed of full-face rock tunnel boring machines exceeded 400 meters per month, and mechanical rock breaking technology achieved breakthrough progress.
2.5 Stage 5: Intelligent Tunneling Stage (2020s – Present)
At present, the industry is moving toward fewer-person and unmanned intelligent tunneling. Core technologies include precise equipment positioning (vision + inertial navigation), directional tunneling, autonomous cutting, intelligent support, collaborative control of equipment groups, and digital twin-driven intelligent management systems. In 2025, the industry has realized routine unmanned intelligent cutting in deep-buried large-section coal roadways. Bolter-miners can operate autonomously throughout the process, with boundary cutting errors controlled within 3 cm. Intelligent bolting robots integrate cutting, loading, haulage and drilling-bolting to realize remote automatic cutting, with monthly advance increased by more than 20% compared with traditional technology. Driven by 5G+AI and combined with transparent geological precise modeling, coal mine tunneling is continuously evolving toward the goal of “intrinsic safety, safety with fewer people”.
3 Fire Prevention and Control
A full-chain technical system of “Theoretical Analysis – Dynamic Monitoring – Engineering Prevention and Control – Cutting-edge Innovation” has been established, supported by a professional engineering delivery team to ensure the efficient implementation of technical solutions from design to construction, building a core technical barrier for mine disaster control. With mature technology and execution capabilities, more than ten major fire prevention and control projects have been successfully completed in recent years, accumulating rich practical experience.
4 Dust Control
A full-process, intelligent comprehensive mine dust control technology system has been built. Focusing on key production links such as tunneling, mining and transportation, we devote ourselves to the R&D and engineering application of cutting-edge technologies including foam dust removal, intelligent dust control and high-efficiency dust suppression, providing systematic solutions for mine dust prevention and control.
5 Mine Ventilation
A full-chain technical service system of “Precise Detection – Scientific Analysis – Intelligent Optimization” has been established. Core businesses cover key fields such as ventilation resistance measurement, full-performance testing of main fans, and R&D of intelligent ventilation technology. With the professional advantage of customized solutions, a number of key projects have been efficiently completed in recent years, building a solid and reliable technical barrier for mine ventilation safety.
6 Gas Control
A full-chain technical system for coal seam gas covering “Basic Parameters – Occurrence Regularity – Extraction Efficiency – Disaster Prevention and Control” has been established. Businesses cover key links such as parameter measurement, extraction evaluation, grade identification and technology R&D. With a systematic technical layout, a number of landmark achievements have been made, building a solid technical fortress for mine gas disaster prevention and control. More than ten key gas control projects have been efficiently completed in recent years.
7 Coal Storage and Transportation Fire Prevention
Spontaneous coal combustion is a typical disaster in coal storage and transportation, caused by coal oxidation under certain conditions. It easily leads to coal resource loss, coal quality degradation, and safety and environmental protection accidents. As a supplier of overall solutions for spontaneous combustion prevention in the whole life cycle of coal, we build a full-chain prevention and control technology system with “active early warning + precise prevention and control”. Through ad-hoc network monitoring systems, 24-hour real-time perception, early detection and early positioning are realized. Relying on coal-oxygen inhibitors and sealing materials, a dual prevention mechanism of internal chemical inhibition and surface physical isolation is constructed. Integrated with coal quality management requirements, customized solutions are formed to realize the integration of coal storage and transportation fire prevention and coal quality stability maintenance, helping customers build a safe, green and economical coal storage and transportation system and truly realize “stable storage, reliable retention and effective management” of coal.
8 Ground Pressure Control
Focusing on complex geological working conditions in coal mines, we devote ourselves to three core directions: ground pressure evolution regularity, monitoring and early warning, and coordinated prevention and control, solving ground pressure control problems in complex scenarios such as extra-thick coal seams, gob-side entry retaining, deep mining and fractured surrounding rock. Core research includes in-situ stress measurement and analysis, dynamic evolution characteristics of ground pressure in the mining process, prevention of rock burst and roof disasters, and research on hydraulic roof cutting and pressure relief technology. Through the combination of on-site monitoring, numerical simulation and theoretical modeling, we accurately grasp the distribution regularity, evolution trend and failure mechanism of ground pressure under different geological conditions, providing a scientific basis for support scheme optimization. Through the research on ground pressure evolution regularity, we optimize support parameters and adjust support technology to realize the coordinated adaptation of ground pressure prevention and control and mine support, effectively resolving ground pressure risks caused by high stress and strong deformation, and reducing the incidence of ground pressure disasters.
9 Intelligent Construction
We focus on three core fields of mine intelligent ventilation, collaborative disaster prevention and control, and intelligent fire prevention and control, and devote ourselves to key technical directions such as intelligent ventilation system construction and optimization, precise air flow regulation, intelligent gas and dust control, and intelligent emergency control. Relying on a number of engineering practices, accurate early warning and efficient prevention and control of disasters have been realized, which not only promotes the dual improvement of mine system reliability and operation safety, but also leads the transformation and upgrading of mine safety management toward intelligence and refinement.
10 Mine Support
Focusing on the core goals of surrounding rock stability and risk prevention and control in complex coal mining scenarios, we devote ourselves to key technical fields such as support optimization of complex geological working faces, roadway surrounding rock control and collaborative protection. Based on the pain points of coal mine production sites, we break through support technical bottlenecks under various complex working conditions. We focus on solving support problems in complex working conditions such as extra-thick coal seams, gob-side entry retaining, deep mining and fractured surrounding rock, and form differentiated technical solutions for different geological conditions. In terms of coal pillar retention parameter optimization, through the combination of numerical simulation and field tests, we optimize coal pillar size and layout to realize the dual improvement of resource recovery and surrounding rock stability. In the field of small coal pillar roadway surrounding rock reinforcement, we develop highly adaptable reinforcement materials and construction technologies to effectively suppress roadway deformation and prevent surrounding rock collapse. In terms of complex geological support scheme adaptation, we formulate targeted support systems combined with geological survey data to improve mining efficiency and reduce support cost input, providing solid support technical support for safe, efficient and green coal mining.
11 Geological Water Hazard Control
We focus on the prevention and control of geological water hazards such as goaf water accumulation, separated-bed water disaster, floor confined water and surface subsidence in coal mines, and deeply tackle core technologies including fine detection of goafs, precise plugging of water inrush channels, grouting reconstruction of aquifers, grouting reinforcement of floor aquicludes, and overburden isolation grouting for subsidence reduction. In the general survey of hidden disaster-causing factors, we focus on systematic research on geological problems such as geological heterogeneity, gas enrichment, water inrush hidden dangers and stress concentration. Relying on the real-time acquisition and fusion processing of “four-synchronization” (synchronization with drilling, tunneling, mining and caving) detection data, we significantly improve the real-time perception and interaction of geological information, effectively promote the reconstruction of dynamic geological models, and accelerate the construction of transparent geological platforms.
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