From August 19 to 21, the 2026 High-Quality Development Conference on Intelligent Mines and the Forum on Intrinsic Safety Empowered by Digital Intelligence was held in grand fashion in Dandong, Liaoning. The conference was supported by the China Association for Work Safety in Mines, the National Mining Safety Technology Innovation Center, the Nonferrous Metals Industry Digital Transformation Promotion Center, and the Informatization Branch of the China National Coal Association, and was exclusively organized by DFMC.

With the theme of “Building a Strong Safety Barrier through Digital Intelligence and Safeguarding Mine Development with Smart Technologies,” the conference brought together academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, leaders from government authorities and industry associations, as well as more than 300 industry representatives from ferrous, nonferrous, coal, and non-metallic mining enterprises. Together, they discussed the development of intrinsic mine safety and explored practical pathways for driving the transformation of the mining industry through digital and intelligent technologies

At the opening ceremony, leaders from the Department of Mineral Resources Protection and Supervision of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Department of Natural Resources of Liaoning Province, as well as Huang Xueli, Vice Mayor of Dandong, delivered speeches in succession. The leaders extended their congratulations on the successful opening of the conference and sincere welcomes to all participating guests, while taking the overall national mineral resource security situation as their starting point. Their speeches outlined the direction for development in mine safety production, intelligent upgrading, and efficient utilization of mineral resources, and expressed the hope that all parties across the industry chain would deepen exchanges and collaboration, address industry challenges through technological innovation, and jointly strengthen the foundation for safeguarding China’s mineral resource security.

Chen Xuesen, Vice President of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, and Lei Pingxi, Chief Engineer of the China Metallurgical Mining Enterprises Association, delivered speeches successively. The association leaders fully affirmed the critical value of intelligent transformation in mine safety production, quality and efficiency improvement, and green emission reduction. They stated that industry associations would continue to build platforms for innovation and collaboration, promote the evolution of core technologies for intelligent mines, the widespread application of domestically produced equipment, and the development of industry standards, working together with the entire industry to advance China’s mining sector into a new stage of high-quality development.

As the organizer of the conference, Bao Liangqing, Chairman of DFMC, delivered a speech on behalf of the company. He pointed out that mineral resources are an important cornerstone of national resource security, and that the construction of intelligent mines is by no means simply a matter of adding technologies together. Advancing the development of intelligent mines requires top-level overall planning as the starting point, solid underlying support for comprehensive real-time data perception, a focus on specialized industry large models for specific mine scenarios, and an unwavering commitment to value creation as the fundamental purpose of intelligent development, so as to truly help mines achieve multiple objectives including controllable safety, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and green transformation.

The conference specially invited 20 top scientific research experts and authoritative scholars from China’s mining sector to deliver keynote speeches, bringing together industry wisdom, sharing cutting-edge achievements, and jointly exploring development pathways. Academicians Wang Guofa and Pan Yishan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering provided highly forward-looking and in-depth insights based on the realities of the industry.

Academician Wang Guofa directly addressed China’s current national conditions, characterized by a large overall demand for mineral resources and significant pressure on resource security, and assessed that the mining industry is accelerating its transformation from traditional labor-intensive operations toward digital and intelligent development. He proposed that the industry should rely on digital technologies to build a new ecosystem for super-large intelligent mines, concentrate efforts on tackling core technologies such as unmanned mining, intelligent safety monitoring, and multi-hazard disaster monitoring, deepen collaborative innovation among industry, academia, and research institutions, and promote the high-end, intelligent, and green development of the mining industry. He stated that the conference had brought together numerous leaders from mineral resource-related associations, societies, and industry authorities, creating an unprecedented event that fully demonstrated the industry’s high level of attention to the intelligent development of mining, as well as its recognition and support for the organizer, DFMC, for its long-term efforts to promote intelligent development across the industry.

Academician Pan Yishan focused on rockburst, a global challenge in mine management. He stated that although China has achieved phased progress in the prevention and control of rockburst disasters, the industry still needs to bring together the strength of multiple parties to continue tackling key challenges, develop more mature and reliable intelligent monitoring, prediction, and prevention technologies, conduct research and development of intelligent equipment capable of replacing manual operations throughout the entire rockburst management process, and drive a new leap forward in mine disaster prevention and control capabilities. The series of technological challenges proposed by the academicians and experts is precisely the field in which DFMC has been working tirelessly for decades.

Zhao Hongtao, General Manager of DFMC, and Lü Tao, Dean of the Intelligent Mine Design and Research Institute, delivered special presentations at the main forum, comprehensively showcasing the company’s independently developed cutting-edge technologies, innovative products, and practical achievements from its deep involvement in frontline mining operations.

“Mine intelligentization cannot remain at the level of concepts and visions. It must be brought down to systems, equipment, and actual production sites, with tangible implementation results used to demonstrate the value of technology,” Zhao Hongtao stated in his presentation. Addressing real pain points in mine production, DFMC has continued to tackle a series of key technologies: autonomous drilling rig operation enables reduced staffing in high-risk operating scenarios; online multi-element analysis equipment for neutron-activation analysis of ore (ore slurry) has broken through foreign technological barriers; the intelligent online grinding concentration analysis system and the large industry model for mineral processing have successively achieved major breakthroughs, transforming intelligent mines from blueprint concepts into tangible productivity at actual mine sites and providing solid support for the implementation of intelligent technologies across the industry.

Lü Tao stated that intelligentization is a key means of implementing the principle of “promoting safety through science and technology” and driving mine safety governance from post-event response toward proactive prevention.DFMC will deeply integrate intelligent sensing, big data, and AI large models into the entire chain of mine production, establish a comprehensive intelligent sensing system, and reshape the safety management model through multi-source data fusion and intelligent analysis, thereby improving the intrinsic safety level of mines from the technological source.

During the conference, participating academicians, leaders from government authorities, and corporate representatives visited the headquarters of Dongfang Measurement & Control, touring the National Major Scientific Instrument R&D Center, Intelligent Equipment and Industrial Robot R&D Center, Autonomous Driving R&D Center, Intelligent Control R&D Center, Management and Control Intelligent Decision-Making R&D Center, Controllable Neutron Source R&D Center, Intelligent Mine Design and Research Institute, and Artificial Intelligence Industrial Park. They observed the company’s cutting-edge scientific research achievements and core intelligent equipment at close range and gained a deeper understanding of its R&D and innovation capabilities.

DFMC is the lead drafting organization for national industry standards for intelligent mines, and the company’s overall intelligent mine solution has been included in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s Catalogue of Advanced and Applicable Technologies for nationwide promotion and application. Over the past 30 years, DFMC has served numerous central state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises, large private enterprises, and overseas mining companies, implementing more than 400 large-scale intelligent projects, with its business covering more than 40 countries worldwide. Participating experts and representatives highly praised DFMC’s innovative practices and fruitful achievements, stating that the company has demonstrated outstanding technological strength and a strong sense of responsibility in addressing industry “bottleneck” challenges, providing the industry with a replicable and scalable pathway for transformation.

When the mining industry is stable, resources are secure. Safeguarding national mineral resource security cannot be achieved without the independent innovation and responsibility of domestic technology enterprises. The 2026 High-Quality Development Conference on Intelligent Mines was not only a major event for the exchange of ideas across the industry, but also a concentrated showcase of domestically developed intelligent mine technologies and achievements. Looking ahead, DFMC will continue to follow the path of independent innovation, remain committed to bringing technological achievements to the frontline of mine production, continuously refine and develop high-performance domestically produced intelligent mine equipment, and work together with partners across the entire industry chain to continuously contribute Chinese solutions to the safe, efficient, green, and high-quality development of China’s mining industry.