[Ferro-Alloys.com]

Providing 870 million metric tons of coal last year, one-fifth of total national coal production, Ordos in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region has tapped digitalized technology to enhance working efficiency and empower mine safety.

"Safe production in coal mines is both a political task and a major responsibility," said Ordos Vice-Mayor Wu Jianxun. "Ordos insists on deeply integrating digitalization into the whole process of safe production to improve the essential safety level of coal mines."

The city has built a risk monitoring and early warning system by applying robots for automated patrols, utilizing optical fiber for temperature checks and conducting real-time monitoring on pile slopes.

China has invented a series of personal protection products like positive-pressure oxygen respirators and chemical oxygen self-rescuers, solving the problem of emergency treatment of the injured unable to breathe in the toxic and harmful gas environments in disaster areas.

With a transmission distance of no less than 1,000 meters between wireless repeaters and a system delay of no more than two seconds, wireless communication systems for mine disaster relief have been utilized by 14 national mine emergency rescue teams to transmit on-site audio and video, environmental parameters and vital signs of the rescue team to the command center so as to guarantee the safety of rescuers and enhance the efficiency of rescue.

Based on big data, Internet Plus and cloud computing, China has developed an emergency rescue management information platform to assist experts in carrying out remote, real-time, visual and interactive accident diagnosis, rescue and investigation, improving the ability of coal mine accident prevention and control.

Under the General Office of the State Council's guideline to strengthen the construction of online monitoring networks and comprehensive information platforms for mine safety in June, the country has established multilayered surveillance interplay among national authorities, local administrations and coal mines, said Shi Baozhong, head of the National Mine Safety Administration's coal mine safety supervision department.

Innovative safety supervision and intelligent construction in coal mines have brought about a drop in the number of major safety accidents. From 2012 to last year, the annual number of mine accidents decreased by 75.8 percent, and the mine death toll fell by 77.6 percent, according to the administration. China Daily

• [Editor:kangmingfei]