Feature
            
            
                Published on: 09. March 2021
            
        Digitized mining
China is to be further digitized – even underground. The first innovation laboratory in the coal-rich province of Shanxi shows how this can be done: Fully automated mines could not only prevent mining accidents but also increase productivity – and thus make China less dependent on raw material imports. In addition, the technology could also supply the countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), whose mining sector is mostly still backward.
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                    Frank Sieren
                    
                
            Last updated: 24. July 2025