Chinese Intelligent Technology Helps Global South Mining Development

en.Wedoany.com Reported - Walking into the Tianjin Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center, at the booth of Dandong Dongfang Measurement & Control Technology Co., Ltd., staff members were introducing the company's business. At the scene, several foreign businesspeople were inquiring about intelligent mining equipment, while others nearby waited to exchange business cards.

This is the scene the reporter witnessed at the 2026 China International Mining Conference. In recent years, China's mining intelligence construction has continued to accelerate, and a batch of intelligent technologies and equipment covering exploration, extraction, transportation, and management and control has become increasingly mature. This progress has attracted more and more enterprises from Global South countries to seek cooperation.

"China's mining technology is developing rapidly, and artificial intelligence has already been applied to geological data analysis and the operation of mining equipment. These technologies are worth learning from," said Andy Nsensel, Assistant to the Chairman of Gécamines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, noting that the main purpose of this trip was to meet with Chinese partners and seek more cooperation opportunities.

The AI-based mineral exploration that Nsensel noticed is backed by China's continuous exploration of mining intelligence. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, China's coal mine intelligence construction has accumulated investment of 107.1 billion yuan. By the end of 2025, 1,066 intelligent coal mines had been built nationwide, with intelligent production capacity accounting for more than 65 percent, and the number of unmanned mining trucks in operation exceeded 4,000, basically achieving double-digit annual growth... 5G, artificial intelligence, the industrial internet of things, and intelligent equipment have been deeply integrated with coal development technologies, accelerating China's coal mine intelligence construction toward deeper development.

This set of capabilities honed domestically is now helping the mining development of the Global South as Chinese enterprises go global. In Ghana, the super-large ball mill developed by CITIC Heavy Industries is running smoothly; in Brazil, dozens of CITIC Heavy Industries crushers and mills are operating efficiently...

"Nowadays, overseas customers no longer value the technical parameters of a single piece of equipment, but overall solutions," said Cui Langlang, Deputy General Manager of CITIC Heavy Industries Machinery Co., Ltd. He introduced that CITIC Heavy Industries is transforming the performance advantages of single machines into integrated solutions covering equipment supply, services, and maintenance for the entire mining process. Up to now, the company's mining equipment and services have covered 78 countries and regions worldwide.

Some "small but beautiful" intelligent equipment is also promoting cost reduction and efficiency improvement in single-point production. At the booth of Zhejiang Chaoxili Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of iFlytek, Long Zhiqiang, Director of iFlytek's Metal Mining Industry, introduced to the reporter how sound can become a "stethoscope" for mine safety. Relying on the Chaoxili industrial acoustic large model, a device called the "AI Fiber Optic Stethoscope" at the booth can conduct 24/7 "inspections" of long-distance mining equipment and facilities, slurry pipelines, and underground cables, greatly reducing manual inspection time.

"Long-distance equipment such as mine belt conveyors and pipelines have large inspection spans and complex environments, and traditional manual inspections can no longer keep up with the requirements of 'reducing personnel and increasing safety,'" Long Zhiqiang said. At present, a series of products represented by the AI Fiber Optic Stethoscope have entered the Southeast Asian market and are accelerating deployment in scenarios such as energy and power, mining, and oil and gas.

From products to technologies, and then to complete sets of solutions, the path of mining cooperation between China and Global South countries is gradually becoming clear. The "Tianjin Declaration on Green Mining Development" released at the conference proposed promoting the deep integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, the internet of things, and digital twins with mining, and steadily promoting intelligent mines and automated, remote operations.

This provides a future direction for cooperation for many industry figures from Global South countries attending the conference. Mohamed Nourain is the CEO of Sudan's Koser Mining, and this conference drew his attention to the application of artificial intelligence and intelligent technology in mineral exploration. "In Sudan, we usually conduct satellite surveys first, and then send teams for on-site sampling. If drones are used, the data may be more accurate," he said.

Elvis Nsofor, a geospatial data analyst at the National Space Research and Development Agency of Nigeria, said he hopes Chinese enterprises can bring advanced technologies such as green technology and artificial intelligence to Nigeria's mineral exploration and development.