From September 28 to 29, 2020, the National Conference on Comprehensive Utilization of Mineral Resources was held in Tongguan County, Shaanxi Province. The conference aims to promote the development of solid waste resource utilization industries such as tailings, smelting slag, waste rock, and construction waste, effectively solve the solid waste treatment problems faced by mining enterprises and smelting plants, promote advanced applicable technologies for tailings solid waste resource utilization, assist mining and metallurgy enterprises in formulating overall technical solutions for solid waste resource utilization, and cooperate with the government to improve the development ideas for the comprehensive utilization of tailings solid waste resources, achieving high-quality green circular sustainable development through local industrial agglomeration.

At the opening ceremony, academician Cai Meifeng of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Rao Qilin, chairman of the China Mining Value-Added Service Alliance, Zhang Zhimin, secretary-general of the Xinjiang Mining Association, and Yu Juanxia, deputy secretary of the Tongguan County Party Committee and county mayor, delivered speeches. Subsequently, the Tongguan County People's Government signed strategic cooperation agreements with the China High-Tech Industrialization Research Association Mining Value-Added Service Alliance and the Xi'an Import and Export Chamber of Commerce. The China Mining Value-Added Service Alliance and Mining Library Network held a licensing ceremony for 10 newly joined member units and 10 outstanding partners.

Cai Meifeng stated that intelligent unmanned mining is an important guarantee for the sustainable development of mineral resources in China. Currently, the construction of unmanned mines at home and abroad is still in its initial stage, where the core technology of unmanned mining is still the automation and intelligent control of traditional mining processes and production organization management. With the advancement of information communication and artificial intelligence technology, unmanned mining will inevitably develop towards a high-level unmanned mine characterized by integrated high-speed digital communication networks, the Internet, big data, cloud computing, and intelligent mining equipment and processes. The equipment and control systems for unmanned mining at this stage should have intelligent target recognition and perception, autonomous memory, autonomous judgment, and autonomous decision-making, similar to the functions of an intelligent brain, without the need for external remote control.

Rao Qilin pointed out that domestic mineral resources are generally small to medium-sized, with low grades and high mining difficulties. The degree of marketization in the industry is not high, with many small enterprises, some large but not strong, and most enterprises bearing heavy burdens with high debt ratios. High-cost enterprises face fluctuations in the mining market without effective policies and measures to cope. Currently, many high-cost small and medium-sized mining enterprises in China have suspended production. Even the globally dominant mineral—coal—is facing difficulties under the impact of low-cost overseas mines. Many mining enterprises are under the dual pressure of "prices rising, costs not coming down," while also constrained by technological levels and ecological environmental protection. In the face of this predicament, she believes that the core content of value-added services is a customer demand-oriented service concept. Thinking from the customer's perspective, providing customers with unconventional and various extended business activities, focusing on guiding customer value-added services, and emphasizing services that help enterprises make business and gain profits.

Zhang Zhimin called for joint efforts to promote comprehensive resource utilization, leading with continuously innovative development concepts and scientific technologies, to facilitate the transformation and upgrading of domestic mining enterprises and broaden mining development channels. It is necessary to leverage the role of colleges, universities, and research institutions in the value-added service alliance to expand the mining service field, achieve mutual benefit, and realize win-win cooperation. Promote mining enterprises to grow stronger in investment and financing, technological innovation, and green development. Xinjiang is located at a favorable node of the Silk Road, with superior geographical advantages. The Xinjiang Mining Association is willing to leverage its years of cooperation in the Central Asian region to jointly build a bridge for cooperation between Chinese enterprises and Central Asian countries.

Yu Juanxia introduced that Tongguan has rich resources of gold, silver, lead, iron, etc., especially with unique gold resources and a long history of mining. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the Tongguan County Party Committee and County Government have focused on the scientific development of the gold industry, actively planning in areas such as deep exploration, gold resource integration, comprehensive utilization of tailings, gold tourism, and gold jewelry trade. In the new era, Tongguan will continue to promote ecological restoration of the Qinling Mountains, green mine construction, accelerate the integration of gold resources and deep development, and build a gold smelting and trading base in the central and western regions.

Xue Yazhou from the Economic Research Institute of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Lin Dong, founder of Mining Library Network, respectively presented reports on "Progress of National Comprehensive Utilization of Mineral Resources" and "Mining Library Network Assisting the Construction of Online Platforms for Comprehensive Utilization of Mineral Resources."□

Website editor: Gong Li