After years of large-scale continuous mining, China's shallow mineral resources have decreased year by year, and the mining of mineral resources has gradually advanced to the deep. Relevant data show that in the next 10 years, more than one-third of China's metal mines will have mining depths of 1000 meters or more. Deep well mining has become an inevitable trend of mining development in the future. However, in the deep zone pregnant with mineral resources, roof fall, rock burst and other disasters occur frequently, which seriously threatens the life safety of underground operators. "A small-scale rock burst will fly some thin slices from the surrounding rock mass, accompanied by a crisp blasting sound. When a large-scale rock burst occurs, the sound is a bit like thunder." Yang XiaoCong, chief expert of mining and Metallurgy Technology Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as mining and metallurgy group) and director of mine engineering research and Design Institute, told Science and Technology Daily that rock burst is the main safety disaster in deep shaft mining of metal mines, which usually damages roadways, stopes and underground facilities and equipment, and in serious cases will cause casualties. In order to ensure safe production, after nearly 10 years of research and development, the ground pressure monitoring team of the mine engineering research and Design Institute of the mining and metallurgy group has built a BSN mining high-precision micro earthquake monitoring system and a BSc mine safety monitoring and analysis cloud service platform to "sense" the "wind and grass" in the deep well mining operation area and build a safety "firewall" for deep well mining. Yang XiaoCong introduced that the ground pressure monitoring business is derived from the requirements of mining safety, including stress monitoring, deformation monitoring, displacement monitoring, microseismic monitoring and other monitoring contents. Among them, microseismic monitoring is the most effective means to monitor rock burst. Combined with the stress monitoring and deformation monitoring data, the monitoring system can directly reflect the ground pressure activities, so as to help technicians summarize the rules of mine ground pressure activities, early warning the potential safety hazards in the operation area, and ensure the safety of mining operations. "When the pressure on the rock is close to its strength limit, an 'acoustic emission signal' will be generated. If the rock mass in the mine breaks under the action of ground pressure, a microseismic signal will be sent." Yang XiaoCong introduced that the microseismic monitoring system can infer the space-time law of mine ground pressure activities and evaluate the safety risks of mining operation areas by monitoring the microseismic signals sent by the mine rock mass during the mining process. Technicians can take safety measures in advance to avoid risks, realize online optimization of underground operations such as mining and support, and organize production more safely. At present, the monitoring system developed by the ground pressure monitoring team of the mine engineering research and Design Institute of the mining and metallurgy group is one of the most important mine ground pressure monitoring systems in China, and has begun to be popularized and applied in major mines. Yang XiaoCong shared with reporters the application case of the detection system in Pulang copper mine in the northeast of Shangri La City, Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. "The monitoring system successfully warned of a roof hanging event in the goaf of Pulang copper mine." He told reporters that in 2017, the monitoring system had well reflected the goaf problems in Pulang copper mine, carried out safety early warning in advance, and helped technicians take preventive measures in time. In April this year, the national work safety plan for the 14th five year plan was released. The plan proposes to deepen the treatment of hidden dangers in goaf of metal and non-metal underground mines, establish and improve the safety risk monitoring and early warning mechanism and monitoring system of non coal mines, and develop and apply intelligent sensing equipment and integrated monitoring equipment of non coal mines. In the laboratory of the mining and metallurgy group, the mine safety monitoring cloud service platform composed of three large displays is displaying the ground pressure monitoring of underground mines, the slope monitoring of open-pit mines and the comprehensive safety monitoring information of tailings pond in real time, providing analytical data support for technicians. Yang XiaoCong said that the ground pressure monitoring team of the mining engineering research and Design Institute of the mining and metallurgy group aims at "smart mines" and is promoting the construction of a cloud service platform for mine safety monitoring. Using this platform, the team can remotely diagnose the ground pressure of mining enterprises across the country in the Beijing office, and realize the three-dimensional supervision of "safety early warning - disaster prevention and control" in the process of mining. (Xinhua News Agency)