Review on Improvements to the Safety Level of Coal Mines by Applying Intelligent Coal Mining

Abstract

China suffers the worst coal mine disasters in the world. Lots of miners lose their lives or suffer occupational injury. Fortunately, China is developing vigorously intelligent coal mining, which is the combination of traditional coal mining and the latest technology. Mining expects to relieve or solve coal mine safety, health and intensive labor issues and ensure energy security by applying intelligent coal mining. This paper fully reviews the promotion of intelligent coal mining to coal mine safety. Firstly, a brief history of intelligent coal mining is introduced. Then the safety motivation of the intelligent coal mine is discussed in four perspectives, including current the coal mine safety tendency, the positive impact of mechanized coal mining on safety, coal mine safety conception of “Mechanization Replacement and Automation Reduction”, and government initiatives. The intelligent prevention and control scheme of major disasters matching intelligent coal mining are also reviewed in the present paper, including intelligent gas extraction, intelligent coal and gas outburst/rock-burst prevention, and the real-time monitoring of water diversion fissure zone. Finally, the positive impacts of intelligent coal mining on safety are evaluated. Compared with traditional longwall face, the number of miners of coal cutting shift is reduced from 20~30 to 5~7, and the working environment is greatly improved. The statistics have shown that the employees in large coal mines, the mortality rates per 106 tons of coal output, and the number of deaths decreased by 33%, 72.2%, and 66.9% during the period of rapid development of intelligent mining technology (2016–2021). In the future, more and more key technologies and management skills should be introduced, aiming at workless mining and the intrinsic safety of the coal mine. This paper provides a way for safety researchers around the world to understand the tendency of coal mine safety in China.