Recently, the No. 22523 working face at Halagou Coal Mine, the first high gob-side entry retaining (GER) mechanized mining face of Shendong Coal, completed installation and debugging. The completion of the working face not only helped the company accumulate valuable experiences for popularizing the GER technology, but also provided Shendong’s solution for the application of GER in the coal industry.
The working face is the first in China to adopt 6.3-meter-high GER supports, new GER technology featuring “branch-unloading” combined pump filling columns with a height above five meters, and cutting-edge technologies such as floor-mounted monorail cranes remotely controlled by the “Harmony Mine” operating system. Besides, it achieved full coverage of 5G signals, big data collection and transmission of coal cutters and hydraulic supports, remote control based on the “Harmony Mine” operation system, and machine-support coordinated control and intelligent mining.
“The working face is a major project of our company in 2023,” said Wen Dajiang, head of the No.1 Mechanized Mining Team of Halagou Coal Mine. “Our team fully leverages the innovation capacity of our intelligent mining squad comprised of college graduates. While maintaining workplace safety, we’ve vigorously advanced technological innovation and intelligent development and optimized equipment maintenance and overhauling. We accumulate valuable experiences in the process of innovation, and spare no efforts to build a benchmark and demonstration project in terms of high GER mechanized mining faces for the coal industry.”
The No. 22523 working face is located at the No.22 fifth coal panel of Halagou Coal Mine, with an average mining height of 5.4 meters. The mining distance of the working face is 3,624 meters, and its planned entry-retaining distance is 3,568 meters. The utilization of the GER technology can help to produce nearly 300,000 tonnes of additional coal.
