BEIJING : China has called on coal-producing regions and enterprises to accelerate adoption of so-called 'smart-mining' technologies, according to a statement released by the National Energy Administration on Thursday.
Smart mining, which involves the replacement human labour with unmanned mining vehicles controlled remotely from above-ground data centres, has been hailed by officials as a means to improve both the safety and efficiency of the country's mining industry. China has installed the technology at more than 1,000 working coal faces as part of this initiative, representing more than 620 million tonnes of annual coal production capacity, the statement said.
The country's coal mines are known to be among the deadliest in the world due to lax safety standards, leading to repeated calls from the government for stricter enforcement. Despite significant improvements in recent years, last year's death toll reached a six-year high of 245 amid calls to ramp up coal output, according to data from the National Mine Safety Administration.