From October 18th to 20th, CHINA MINING Conference and Exhibition 2018 hosted by the China Mining Association was held in Tianjin, which was attended by more than 11,000 attendees from 69 countries and regions around the world.
After 20 years of development, CHINA MINING has become China's largest and highest-profile international event in the mining industry. With the theme of “New Pattern of Opening, New Model for Cooperation” and the entry point of “the Belt and Road” mining international production cooperation, it hosted 60 forums with assorted themes around the hot issues of mining. Besides, the 30,000-square-meter Mining Exhibition attracted many domestic and international mining cooperative projects to exhibit and communicate here, which promoted exchanges and cooperation of domestic and foreign mining enterprises in real sense.
Participating experts stated their views unreservedly on what the highlights of CHINA MINING were, what judgments were made in the meantime and how China's mining industry would develop in the new era.
Reform and opening-up thrived Chinese mining companies
"We should say, the reform and opening-up has thrived China's mining enterprises，" said Chen Jinghe, Chairman of Zijin Mining Group, at the beginning of his speech addressed in the Keynote Session on the Theme of CHINA MINING Conference and Exhibition 2018, He was filled with emotions when referred to the special year marking the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up.
“Before the reform and opening-up, China’s basic metals consumption accounted for less than 5% of the world’s total; while, nowadays, it has reached about 50%. The ultra-short cycle of basic metals were caused by China’s demand.” Reviewing the development of Zijin Mining Group over the past 25 years, Chen Jinghe expressed that it was the reform and opening-up, also the ultra-short cycle of bulk commodities that helped these young and thoughtful entrepreneurs bring off Zijin Mining from scratch with no funds and talents.
Zijin Mining was one epitome of numerous rapidly developing Chinese mining companies. Since the reform and opening-up, China's mining industry has undergone earth-shaking changes, bringing a constellation of technologies and equipment with Chinese characteristics.
The reporter learned that the foundation for industrial modernization was laid after the demand for domestic mineral products being met under the context of rapid industrialization and foreign exchange being earned through exports of some minerals by means of the introduction of foreign capital and the active development of minerals since the international cooperative exploration and development of Bohai offshore oil at the beginning of the 1980s. With the sustained and rapid development of the national economy, China has become one of the most important sales markets for global mineral products. The investment, mergers and acquisitions of overseas mining projects of Chinese-funded mining enterprises developed rapidly, which not only supplemented Chinese market requirement, but made contributions for economic and social development of target countries. China's development could not be separated from that of the world, and the world was also prospered by China's contribution.
The data showed that in 2017, China's geological exploration investment mounted to 78.285 billion yuan; 42 important mineral resources such as coal, petroleum, manganese ore, gold ore and graphite were detected to have increased reserves and the output of 10 important non-ferrous metals such as gold continued to rank first in the world.
However, Chinese mining companies also faced a new situation in “going globally”.
Chen Jinghe pointed out that even as a major consumer of mineral products, China still had no say in their pricing. "The reason mainly lies in Chinese companies’ small control capability for imports and exports of mineral resources, low mine output, relatively high mining costs, less-than-30% self-sufficiency rate of most minerals and high dependency on overseas markets."
"Even so, economic globalization is the irreversible and irresistible trend" Chen Jinghe believed that in this situation, China should further reform and opening-up, comprehensively enhance the endogenous driving force of self-development; at the same time, it must form an environment conducive to the mining enterprises to go globally and provide them with more guidance and assistance in the construction of international Green Channel.
He suggested that it was necessary to analyze and realize the fundamental status of the mining industry, and to view the environmental impact of the mining development process more objectively and scientifically. “Mining can achieve relative unification with environmental protection. On the one hand, mining companies must adhere to high standards and strict requirements in environmental protection, ecological construction and security, and implement the environmental protection concept that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets; on the other hand, mining regulations should be appropriately revised in accordance with the requirements of the reform of the new era and the needs of the mining industry. In addition to requirements of strengthening safety and environmental protection, government approvals should be further streamlined, market mechanisms be strengthened, and more importantly, geological exploration investment and capacity of mining assets laws be guaranteed."
Intelligentization will be a catalyst for mining efficiency
Mining was not only a “three-high” industry with high investment, high technology and high risk, but also a broad field with long chain, large coverage and great fluctuations. After years of downturn, the industry faced urgent challenges on how to revitalize itself through Internet Plus, and to create industry value through Big Data in today's era.
At present, the world has entered a new era of intelligent development. Under such a background, mining industry faced great challenges due to the relatively low price of mineral products, the difficulty of mining, the shortage of employees, the rising labor costs, and the increasingly strict requirements for safety and environmental protection.
"The global mining industry is undergoing a new revolution, in which the connections of big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things technology and mines are getting closer. The global mining industry is stepping into a new historic period based on the global allocation of resources and guaranteed by the international operation of enterprises with intelligent method of cross-border cooperation and target of green and ecological intelligent harmony." Zhang Yuansheng, director of the Intelligent Mining Center of Beijing General Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, said at CHINA MINING, that the development of intelligent and even unmanned mining technology, the innovation of mining mode, and the diminishing of underground personnel were necessary in the progress of China's mining industry and were important ways for its sustainable development.
Data manifested that, Western countries have begun to research automated and digital intelligent mining technology since the 1960s. In order to obtain competitive advantages in the mining industry, countries like Sweden, Finland, Australia, Canada formulated development plans for “intelligent mines” and “unmanned mines” successively, which have already reached advanced level in automatic mining and automation systems.
According to data from BCG, mining companies could increase the success rate of prospecting by 25%, mine capacity by 23%, and the availability of transport trucks by 15% through predicative maintenance.
It was shown that digitization and intelligence have become the catalysts for modern mining companies to achieve efficiency and reduce costs.
Wang Lijun, executive director of Shandong Gold Group, introduced that the intelligent transformation of domestic mining industry has only started from around 2000. With the support of national projects, the popularizing rate of digitized design tools and the numerical control rate of key technological processes were partly enhanced, and the level of intelligence was promoted constantly in some large and medium-sized mining enterprises in China.
However, Hu Lishun, Chief Data Intelligence Officer of Alibaba Cloud Computing Co., Ltd., reminded, "Although having been introduced in some companies, intelligent devices were mostly used for display and only included very few data for decision making. In other words, the value of data hasn’t been fully applied"
In response to this situation, Alibaba Cloud proposed the concept of "industrial brain". All the data is collected, modeled and analyzed through the data platform, “industrial brain”, and finally fed back to mineral enterprises to meet their improvement requirements.
Geo-Cloud 2.0 was also launched online by the China Geological Survey of the Ministry of Natural Resources at CHINA MINING. It covered all 29 units of the Geological Survey, constructed 12 types of databases and geological information product systems of 8 categories including basic geology, area geology, agricultural geology, environmental geology, physical and chemical exploration, geology and mineral resources and marine geology.
Officials in China Geological Survey said that they would continuously improve social services through strengthening the timely collection of survey and monitoring data, digging deep into geological data, developing a geological analysis and evaluation system with the “Geo-Cloud” construction as the core.
“The Belt and Road” brought new opportunities for mining development
"The general trend of economic globalization is irreversible. In the new development period, the thriving large-scale multinational enterprises with global competitiveness is the summon of the new era, and the initiative choice of enterprises with aspiration and achievements," said Chen jinghe, which was also the voice of all attendees.
In the eyes of Jiao Jian, Vice General Manager of China Minmetals Corporation, the construction of “the Belt and Road” would promote regional economic development and thus increase the demand for mineral resources. “On the one hand, the in-depth promotion of ‘the Belt and Road' construction is conducive to promoting the Asia-Europe-Africa connection, also the infrastructure construction, urbanization and medium- and long-term development; on the other hand, countries along the routes boast unique development advantages and great development potential in metal and mining industries. As a result, this region will surely be significant in the development of global mining in the future."
Zhang Yaxiong, Chief Economist of the International Cooperation Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that “in ‘the Belt and Road’ construction of the past five years, China accurately connected its advantages in geosciences as well as experiences in mineral resources development and achieved complementary advantages with countries along the routes. Significant progress has been made after concepts and visions being transformed into realistic actions.
All these judgments received endorsements from other attendees.
According to Samim Khair Mohammad, Bureau Director, Ministry of Mining and Oil of Afghanistan, among the more than 1,400 mineral deposits in Afghanistan, there were 3.622 billion barrels of hidden oil, 2.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent of potential natural gas in accordance with estimation, 70 million tons of copper, billions of tons of iron resources, and a huge storage of high-quality gemstone. He expressed that Afghanistan especially hoped to introduce and absorb China's advanced experience and technology.
Ms. Purevsuren Sarangerel, a geologist at the Mongolian Ministry of Mines and Heavy Industry also uttered: “The development of mining is imperative for Mongolia. Hence, Mongolia has undertaken various types of geological exploration, obtained basic data, formulated a long-term development plan and vigorously carried out infrastructure construction of mining in recently years to promote the sustainable development of mineral industry with prolonged stability. We look forward to more exchanges and cooperation with China in the future."
In the five years “the Belt and Road” initiative being proposed, key projects and demonstration engineering in the field of mineral resources emerged and thrived. Statistics showed that, the China Geological Survey and its affiliate Ministry of Natural Resources China signed almost 400,000 memorandums of understanding, project cooperation agreements and letters of intent in the field of geosciences and carried out almost 50 cooperative projects with 11 countries including Russia, Kazakhstan along the “Belt and Road” in total.
The voices of authority
The Hon. Ling Yueming, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources China opined: the new global mining cooperation model of achieving shared growth through discussion and collaboration should be formed.
“China will widen its door for reform and opening-up, and continue to impel investment facilitation, management modernization, trade liberalization in mining field so as to generate a new mining pattern of development and openness,” said Vice Minister Ling yueming at CHINA MINING Conference and Exhibition 2018
According to him, with the sustained and rapid development of national economy, China has become one of the foremost sales markets for global mineral products. Chinese mining companies have been increasingly active in the investment, merger and acquisition of overseas mining projects, which on the one hand supplemented the demand of Chinese market, and on the other hand made contributions to the economic and social development of target countries.
In order to further promote the new pattern of mining opening, as Ling Yueming put it, China was making efforts to optimize the environment, complete the system, upgrade the level and lead the way with science and technology.
Specifically, China were fully implementing measures of streamlining administration, delegating power, strengthening administration and optimizing service for promoting mining development It has merged and canceled nearly 80% of the administrative items of examination and approval related to mining rights, and actively decentralized the power of examination and approval of them. It has also continuously improved the business environment in the field of mineral resources exploration and development, and promoted the standardization of management processes and transparency of information.
According to reports, China would reduce import tariffs for 1,585 items, involving a variety of non-metals and rare earths from November 1 this year.
In terms of system perfection, Ling expressed that China would establish an integrated management system for ecological environment of resources, build paid use system of resources and ecological compensation system reflecting supply and demand of market and resource scarcity as well as embodying ecological value and intergenerational compensation, and Improve the asset management system of national natural resources
In respects of upgrading the level, China would reshape the sustainable development model of mining industry and better handle the relationship between mineral resources development and ecological environment protection.
Ling said that China should put investigation first to scientifically evaluate environmental carrying capacity; prioritizing ecology, orderly withdraw mining rights in nature reserves, and take multiple measures for promoting green exploration, creating green mines, and maximizing the coordination of mining development and ecological protection.
Apropos of providing new driving forces for the future development of geology and mining, China were advancing the major technology plan for Deep Earth Exploration aimed at 2030 and has conducted in-depth theoretical researches on basic geological prospecting in which the most complete Cretaceous continental deposit records has been obtained when “Songke-2” drilled through the 7018-meter deep stratum, and remote sensing together with geophysical exploration technical equipment have also achieved leap-forward development.
Ling summoned that countries should strengthen information communication, share successful experiences and jointly improve global resource management capabilities in the future, and governments and mining companies were obligated to put a premium on fairness and responsibility, so that different countries, classes and groups of people could all benefit from the sustainable and green development of resources. (Gao zhimin) (Translated by TLRHVC)
About CHINA MINING
Since first held in 1999, the scope and influence of CHINA MINING has grown rapidly year by year. As a global mining summit forum and exhibition, CHINA MINING Congress and Expo has become one of the world’s top mining events, and one of the world’s largest mining exploration, development and trading platforms, covering all aspects of the whole mining industry chain, including geological survey, exploration and development, mining rights trading, mining investment and financing, smelting and processing, mining techniques and equipment, mining services, etc. playing an active promotion role in creating exchange opportunities and enhancing mutual cooperation between domestic and foreign mining enterprises.
CHINA MINING Conference and Exhibition 2018 Was held at Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center in Tianjin in October 18-20, 2018. We invite you to join the event and to celebrate the 20th anniversary of CHINA MINING with us. For more information about CHINA MINING 2018, please visit: m.balanzskin.com.
