IoT technology improves mining monitoring efficiency

These days we just need to check the intelligent monitoring system on the computer to instantly see the situation of boundary pillars at a mine, said Lin Xiangjun, a staff member of the Kecheng land resources bureau in an interview with local media on Jan 4.

Boundary pillars are important evidences for the regulatory bureau to decide whether a company exploits minerals beyond the approved areas or not.

The staff member said that the signals for boundary pillars in the system are green when they are in normal conditions and when they turn to red, it means something unusual has occurred. Then the bureau will get in contact with owners of the mines and find out about the specific situations.

However, until recently they still needed to have a surveying and mapping company go to different mines to help them get the real-time situation of their boundary pillars.

In order to improve its mining monitoring efficiency, the bureau turned to a district company, China Mobile IoT Co.

After three on-the-spot surveys and numerous tests and pilot runs, the company successfully developed intelligent boundary pillars with NB-IoT technology, which is mainly used in devices necessary for smart cities, such as water meters, gas meters, and urban parking and fire control systems.

The intelligent boundary pillars have greatly lowered the bureau's cost and improved the efficiency of mine regulatory supervision, noted Lin.