5G tech applied to smart mining in Diqing

The 5G technology has been used to for manless copper mining in northwest Yunnan’s Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, according to a presser on July 26.

The Pulang copper mining area is located at an elevation scope of 3,400 to 4,500 meters in the east of Diqing’s city of Shangri-La, and the low temperature and lack of oxygen posed grave challenges to the miners.

“The safety of staff members in the pit has been a major headache for industrialists that mine the nonferrous metals,” said Liu Jian, a senior manager with the Yunnan branch of China Mobile Communications, who was present at the news release.

Liu noted that his company’s 5G technology allowed the miners to operate the mining machines via a remote control system in the office, instead of underground, and the efficiency at the Pulang mining site has been increased by 64 percent on the whole.

Thanks to the 5G technology, the number of the staff members at the Diqing mining site was cut to 700 from 3,000. Pulang has pioneered in using 5G for smart mining in China, and its success will be introduced to other highland mining areas of nonferrous metals.

Reporting by Luo Jie (China News Service); Online photos; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue