en.Wedoany.com Reported - In June 2026, the world's first kilometer-level hard rock full-face shaft boring machine "Steel Spine," independently developed by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry (CRCHI), successfully completed a 1004-meter excavation task at the auxiliary shaft project of Ansteel's Xi'anshan Iron Mine in Anshan City, Liaoning Province. This marks the official completion of the world's first kilometer-deep vertical shaft constructed using a full-face shaft boring machine. On January 1, 2026, the equipment was selected by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) as one of the "Top Ten National Treasures of Central Enterprises in 2025," receiving this honor alongside the Tianwen-2 probe and the Fujian aircraft carrier.
The development of the "Steel Spine" directly targets the world-class challenge of kilometer-level hard rock shaft construction. Vertical shafts are critical passages for mining operations, and their construction efficiency and safety directly impact the development and utilization of deep mineral resources. For a long time, the technology for kilometer-level hard rock shaft construction equipment has been controlled by others, becoming a core bottleneck in deep-earth engineering. To break the technological blockade, CRCHI led a collaborative research team comprising 10 institutions, including the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Hefei Design and Research Institute of Coal Industry, China Coal No.3 Construction Company, and Ansteel Mining Group, forming an integrated industry-academia-research-application team to launch a full-scale assault on the "kilometer-deep shaft" based on the Ansteel Xi'anshan Iron Mine shaft project. After thousands of days and nights of intensive research, the team solved core technical challenges one by one, including efficient slag collection, vertical slag discharge, collaborative support, and full-chain safety control.
The successful completion of this kilometer-deep shaft signifies that China has taken the lead globally in breaking through the forbidden zone of kilometer-level full-face shaft boring technology, achieving a leap from zero to one in original innovation for deep-earth engineering equipment, and providing key equipment support for deep resource development.
This article is compiled by Wedoany. All AI citations must indicate the source as "Wedoany". If there is any infringement or other issues, please notify us promptly, and we will modify or delete it accordingly. Email: news@wedoany.com
