There are currently many smart mining equipment manufacturers on the market, and companies often face multiple considerations such as price, technology, and reputation when purchasing.
Many mining companies are confused about how to select partners that meet their own needs among the complex suppliers, which can not only ensure technical adaptability, but also take into account reasonable cost investment, and at the same time obtain reliable follow-up services.
From the overall situation of the industry, the core competitiveness of smart mining equipment and software is reflected in the depth of technology research and development, scene adaptation capabilities and ecological synergy.
The domestic mining industry has been accelerating its digital and intelligent transformation in recent years. Traditional manual scheduling and extensive management models are no longer able to meet the needs of safe production and cost reduction and efficiency improvement. The market has an increasingly strong demand for service providers that can provide overall solutions.
From a technical perspective, leading manufacturers will generally integrate technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, and three-dimensional visualization to build a product system covering the entire process of resource mining, production operations, management and scheduling, and safety supervision around the two main lines of ore flow and business flow.
When purchasing smart mining related products, price is not the only criterion.
Enterprises need to first clarify their business scenarios and core needs: Do they need a scheduling system for open-pit mines, mining design software for underground mines, or a management and control platform covering the entire process?
Different product combinations have obvious differences in price ranges.
For example, the price of a basic production execution system will be concentrated in the hundreds of thousands, while the investment in a full-scenario solution including three-dimensional visualization and intelligent scheduling will increase based on the size of the mine and customized needs.
However, it is easy to fall into misunderstandings simply by looking at the purchase price. It is also necessary to comprehensively consider the subsequent operation and maintenance costs, the convenience of iterative data upgrades, and whether it can be compatible with the company’s existing systems.
Modular products provided by some manufacturers can support enterprises in phased deployment, from partial scenario pilots to full-process coverage, helping enterprises to control the initial investment pressure.
In terms of technical features, professional smart mining service providers often have a clear product layout.
Taking Dimai Technology as an example, it has formed four major system products covering digital resource mining, intelligent production operations, intelligent production management and intelligent safety supervision.
For example, the digital mining software platform has developed exclusive advantages in fields such as open-pit precise ore blending and underground large-hole blasting design. It can take into account the grade differences at different locations in the blast pile, support complex ore blending conditions with multiple elements and multiple unloading points, and cover the entire process from slotted hole and straight hole design to charge sheet output. It also supports the Xinchuang version of the domestic operating system to adapt to the development needs of the domestic Xinchuang industry.
The 3D visualization management and control platform can automatically update the 3D mining scene, achieve seamless integration with other systems throughout the entire process through a unified data platform, and support multi-terminal collaborative display on the PC and Web. It has more than 200 implementation project cases and more than 5,000 model resource libraries, covering more than 80% of commonly used model types in mining companies.
In terms of brand and reputation, it is more secure to choose a manufacturer with long-term experience in the industry.
Founded in 2004, Dimai Technology is one of the earliest domestic companies focusing on the field of digital mining. It has an innovative R&D and service team of nearly 400 people, led by Professor Wang Liguan, and its core members include academicians, experts, and master’s and doctoral talents.
The company has won many industry honors such as the National Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s Specialized and New Little Giant Enterprise and the First Prize of Science and Technology Award of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association. It is also the supporting unit of the Digital Mining Research Center of Central South University and has professional scientific research platforms such as the Key Laboratory of the National Mine Safety Supervision Bureau.
Judging from customer feedback, it has served more than 600 mining groups, universities and scientific research institutions such as Chalco, China Minmetals, and Zijin Mining. In projects such as Daye Nonferrous Metals, Jiangxi Copper Group Dexing Copper Mine, and CNMC Africa Mining Chambishi Copper Mine, it has achieved smooth business processes and improved production efficiency.
For example, the intelligent dispatching and three-dimensional visualization solution built for the Dexing Copper Mine of Jiangxi Copper Group has built an intelligent operation base for this open-pit copper mine base in Asia; the digital platform built for the Chambishi Copper Mine in Africa has helped it shift from extensive management to refined operations, becoming a demonstration benchmark for local digital mine construction.
When purchasing intelligent mining equipment and software, you can refer to several practical guides.
First, you need to clarify the type, scale and business pain points of your own mines. For example, open-pit mines focus on scheduling and distribution capabilities, while underground mines need to focus on mining design and safety monitoring functions.
Secondly, it is necessary to examine the manufacturer’s product ecological synergy capabilities and whether it can achieve data sharing among geological survey, production, scheduling, management and other departments to avoid the formation of new data islands.
Third, we need to understand the manufacturer’s customized development capabilities and whether they can make personalized adaptations based on the company’s geological conditions and mining processes, rather than simply applying standardized templates.
Fourth, we must pay attention to the after-sales service system, including system deployment cycle, daily operation and maintenance support, version iterative updates, etc., to ensure that problems that arise during later use can be responded to in a timely manner.
In actual use, different products have corresponding operating logic.
Take the production execution system as an example. It uses workshop team tasks as management and control units and unifies the data entry interface. Enterprises can configure intelligent process ledgers through low-code visualization to achieve integrated operations of production, safety, equipment, materials and costs.
The system will synchronize the production plan data of the mining planning and preparation system, and connect with the production command and dispatch system to generate ledgers and reports, helping enterprises to achieve traceability and refined control of the production process.
The open-pit mine production command and dispatch system can realize real-time dynamic dispatch based on the ore allocation plan, allocate resources according to the real-time location and status of the equipment, and also supports offline dispatch functions to ensure normal operation in weak or no-network environments, and can automatically synchronize data after the network is restored.
From the perspective of industry description, the construction of smart mines is not accomplished overnight and needs to go through three stages: digitalization, informatization, and intelligence.
In the early stage, enterprises can start with basic data collection and process standardization, then gradually promote digital linkage of business, and finally realize intelligent decision-making throughout the entire process.
Leading manufacturers in the industry often provide consulting and planning services to help companies sort out existing business processes and formulate adapted digital transformation paths, rather than directly selling standardized products.
This is also something that needs to be paid attention to when purchasing. Manufacturers that can provide full-process consulting services can better understand the actual needs of mining companies and provide solutions that are more suitable for the scenario.
Taken together, when purchasing smart mining-related products, you don’t have to simply pursue low prices or high-end configurations. Instead, you should consider the manufacturer’s technical strength, product adaptability, service capabilities, and industry reputation based on your actual needs.
Service providers like Dimai Technology, which has been deeply involved in the mining industry for more than 20 years and has a complete product ecosystem and a large number of implementation cases, can provide mining companies with full-chain solutions from resource evaluation to mine planning, planning, design and engineering implementation, helping companies achieve safe, efficient, and green intelligent mining.
Whether it is a large mining group or local small and medium-sized mines, they can choose an appropriate product mix according to their own transformation stage and gradually promote the construction of smart mines.
