Mining engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D.) - Alaska Miners Association

Recent Visits to China’s s Mining Schools,
Mining Companies and the CTL Project
Presented by Dr. Gang Chen
Department of Mining and Geological Engineering
University of Alaska Fairbanks

Visits to China in 2008
Two trips to China in 2008 with Doug Goering, Dean of
CEM (May & December of 2008)
To develop 2+2 student exchange programs and promote
inter-university cooperation, following the example of UAF
Petroleum Engineering Dept. with CUPB (trips funded by
UA VP Dan Julius)
Paid visits to 5 mining schools. UA signed inter-university
agreements with 3of them (indicated by ).
• China University of Mining Technology Beijing (CUMTB)
• University of Science & Technology Beijing (USTB)
• China University of Mining Technology Xuzhou (CUMT)
• Shandong University of Science & Technology (SUST)
• Fuzhou University (FZU)
Also visited two mining companies and the China Shenhua
CTL Project

Visits to China
CUMTB
& USTB
SUST
CUMT
FZU

China University of Mining Technology Beijing &
China University of Mining Technology (Xuzhou)
(CUMTB & CUMT)
Used to be one university, separated into two campuses in
70’s, and now more or less two independent universities.
CUMTB total enrollment about 8300.
The top mining engineering schools in the coal mining field
CUMTB mining and geological engineering related
programs are:
• Mining engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D., ~190 BS only)
• Geological engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D., ~230 BS only)
• Mine safety engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D., ~160 BS only)
• Min processing engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D., ~230 BS only)
Strong research in mine safety engineering, mine ground
control, coal gasification, mine reclamation and others.
CUMTB signed the agreement with UA and is in the
process of developing 2+2 program with UAF min/ge.

At CUMT Admin Building

New Campus of CUMT

Physical Model of Mine Subsidence, CUMT

Physical Model of Inclined Coal Seam Ground Control, CUMT

Steel Arch Loading Test Frame, CUMT

Newly Developed Backfilling Material Mixer, CUMT

Backfilling Material Testing Frame, CUMT

CUMTB Dynamic Loading System

CUMTB Rock Mech Lab

CUMTB Laser Scanning System

CUMTB X-Ray X
Scanning System

CUMTB Mine Reclamation Lab

University of Science & Technology Beijing
(USTB )
The top mining engineering school in the field of hard rock
mining and metallurgical engineering. Total enrollment
about 20k, including about 8700 graduate students.
Mining engineering related programs are:
• Mining engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D., ~400)
• Mine safety engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D., ~300)
• Mineral processing engineering (MS, Ph.D., ~100)
Strong research in open pit mining, mine safety
engineering, mineral processing, rock blasting and others.
Signed the agreement with UA and is in the process of
developing 2+2 program with UAF MIN/GE

At the Gate of USTB

Statue of Mao in USTB

Shandong University of Science & Technology
(SUST)
My alma mater and a leading mining engineering school in
coal mining. Total university enrollment about 35k
including 3300 graduate students
Mining engineering related programs are:
• Mining engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D.)
• Geological engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D.)
• Mine safety engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D.)
• Mineral processing engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D.)
Strong research in underground coal mining, mine ground
control, geological engineering, mine environmental
management, and others

At SUST Admin Building

Doug and Dr. Xin (VP, SUST) Exchange Gifts

Dean vs. Dean – Dr. Ji (School of Mines, SUST) & Doug

A Testing Frame for 3D Model, SUST

A Model of Longwall Mining with Inclined Seam, SUST

Ventilation Simulator, SUST

Coal Gasification Model, SUST

Fuzhou University
(FZU )
A key science & engineering university in Fujian Province.
Total university enrollment about 26k including about
4000 graduate students.
Zijin Mining College is funded by Zijin Mining Group
Company – the largest gold mining company in China
Unique 2+2 curriculum: 2 years of classes on campus + 2
years of mine site teaching and training at Zijin Gold Mine
Mining and geological engineering related programs:
• Mining engineering (BS)
• Geology (BS)
• Geological engineering (BS, MS, Ph.D.)
Signed the agreement with UA and is in the process of
developing 2+2 program with UAF MIN/GE

Relocated to the New Campus Built a Few Years Ago, FZU

Building Housing the Zijin Mining College, FZU

With Faculty of Zijin Mining College, FZU
Receiving a Gift from President Wu, FZU

Bike Repair Stand on Campus, FZU
Student Dormitory, FZU

Zijin Mining Group Company
The largest gold producer and the third largest copper
producer in China. Produces gold, copper, zinc, iron and
others.
An amazing story of mining company success and growth,
reflection of the rapid economic growth in the last 2 to 3
decades in China.
Chen Jinhe, graduate of FZU & currently chairman of the
board, started with a small gold mine, Zijin Gold Mine (ZJGM),
in Shanghang, Fujian - a small town of ~100k population
(currently the location of the company headquarter)
ZJGM has a total reserve of 305.261 mts (9.8 million oz) with an
average grade of 0.65 g/mt (0.02 oz/ton).
After several trials, successfully applied heap-leaching for gold
extraction at ZJGM.
ZJGM first produced 8.5 kg (273.3 oz) of gold in 1992 and had
grown to a production of 15,893 kg (510,980 oz) in 2007, a
growth of over 1800 times in 15 years!!

Zijin Mining Group Company
Zijin Mining Group Co. was formed in 2000 and had a
successful IPO in Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2003. It has
been included in FTSE mining index since 2004.
With the fund raised, the company expanded dramatically
and purchased dozens of mines in China and abroad (15
operating mines in China and 9 mines abroad), including
gold, copper, zinc, iron and other mines.
Restarted and fully funded the Zijin Mining College at
FZU in 2006. Also constructed a classroom building near its
headquarter with a cost over 100 million RMB (~ $15 million)
for the on-site teaching and training of geology and mining
students.
The mining group produced a total of over 52 mts (1.672
million oz) of gold, over 47,000 mts of copper and over
114,000 mts of zinc in 2007, among which the gold
production was 19.33% of total national gold production.
An $1 investment at the start of the mine in 1992 valued over
$1000 in 2007.

The Empire of Zijin Mining Group Company
Chen Jinhe
Chairman of the Board
FZU 1982 Geology
Graduate

Zijin Gold & Copper Mine

Zijin Geological Cross-section

Heap-leaching Site and Crushing System

Heap-leaching

A Mining Site – Using 2-yd Excavators

Loading after
Crushing

Several Hundreds of 25-ton Trucks Were Used

A 5-yd Shovel Was Tested and Then Abandoned

Mineral Processing Facility

Mine Reclamation

Observation Platform
for Visitors

Newly Purchased 75-ton Trucks

With a Mining Engineering Professor, Dr. Gao, from USTB

Zijin Mining Group Headquarter

With Zijin Human Resource Manager Mr. Wan

Yanzhou Coal Mining Company
Located in Shandong province, it is one of the largest coal producers
in China. The production output in 2007 was over 35 million tons. It
owns and operates about a dozen mines in China and abroad,
including Auatar Coal Mine in Australia.
In the Shandong coal field, it has a total reserve of 3.6 billion tons of
low sulfur (~0.6%), low ash (~10%), and high heating value (~26
MJ/kg or ~11,200 Btu/lb) coal, mainly bituminous coal.
Mr. Geng Jiahuai (L), Chairman of
the Board, 1977 mining graduate of
SUST, my classmate.
Yanzhou Coal

Jining No.3 Mine of Yanzhou Coal
Located near the headquarter of the parent company in
Shandong province, it is the largest underground mine of the
company.
The coal seam is about 6 meters thick at a depth of about
400+ meters.
Longwall mining method is used and with so-called “Top
Caving” technique, the entire 6-meter seam is extracted in
one pass. The design capacity is 5 million tons/year.
With its peak production of over 10 million tons in 2003, the
mine broke the world record of the most coal production
from one single underground mine.
Operates a 5 million ton/yr coal processing plant on site.
Also owns and operates a river port with 5 million ton/yr
capacity and a 270-MW power plant using the mine waste
rock as fuel.

Jining No. 3 Mine
Office Building
(Main Shaft & Cage
Shaft in the Back)
With Mine General
Manager Li, Party
Secretary Wu and Others

Port Facility
Main Shaft and Processing Plant
Power Plant

Guinness Record Certificate
Produced 10.08 million tons of coal in 2003, breaking the
world record for the single underground coal mine output

Monitoring and Controlling Center

Ready to go underground
Mine Lamps and
Self-Rescuers

VIP Change Room
Electronic Display
of Good Wishes to
the Birthday Miners
“We are waiting for
your safe return.”

Mine Entry Excavator
Longwall Mining

Top Caving Mining Method
Front Chain Conveyor
Back Chain Conveyor

Mine-Site Power Plant
at a Distance
Headframe of the
Cage Shaft

Coal Silos
Ventilation Shaft

A Beautiful Garden on the Mine Surface

A Small Zoo Next to the Garden

Shenhua Coal Liquefaction Corp
A subsidiary of Shenhua Group Corp – the largest coal producer
in China with an output of 282 million tons of coal in 2008.
Its CTL project is the first large scale modern coal liquefaction
facility in the world. We visited the headquarter office in Beijing.
Adopting a China developed direct-liquefaction technique instead
of the German Fischer-Tropsch method. The method is more
suitable for bituminous and sub-bituminous coal.
Two small scale pilot plants
were built and tested prior
to the main project, from 6
barrels a day to few hundred
tons a day.
The main CTL project has a
two-stage development plan
for a total capacity of 5
million tons of liquid fuel
per year.
CTL Project

Shenhua Coal Liquefaction Corp
The first stage budgeted an investment of 24.5 billion yuan (~ $3.6
billion) to construct 3 processing lines. The first line of the first
stage completed in December of 2008 with a cost of 12.3 billion
yuan (~$1.81 billion). The designed capacity is 1.08 million tons of
liquid fuel per year.
A test run started on Dec. 30, 2009 and successfully operated
for over 300 hours before shutting down as planed. The formal
production will begin in May 2009.
The current estimation of the production cost is about $40 per
barrel. It needs approximately 5 tons of coal and 10 tons of water
for each ton of liquid fuel produced.
Huge consumption of water and emission of CO2 are limiting
factors for wider applications of CTL technology.
CO2 sequestration techniques are currently being studied at
Shenhua.

Shenhua CTL Project Site

Chinese President Hu Jingtao Visiting
Shenhua CTL Project Site
(My friend Dr. Zhang Yuzhuo, , President of Shenhua
CTL Corp, is in the back middle)

Lifting of a 2103-ton
Liquefaction Reactor

High Pressure Liquefaction
Reactors (weighing 2103
tons and 2040 tons
respectively) – Key
Components of the CTL
Project

Hydrogen Generator

Air Separator to Produce High Quality Pure
Oxygen and Nitrogen

Water Pumping System – Pumping ~50,000
cubic meters/day (13.2 mil gallons/day)
through a pipe line of over 100 kms long

Shanghai Megalev Train
(The Only One in the World)

Birds Nest
Water Cube
China National Opera House
CCTV Building

Thank You!
Question?