On March 2, Shendong Coal held an on-spot meeting to comprehensively analyze and review its gob-side entry retaining work, share success experiences, and make arrangement for future promotion.
Since it began to use gob-side entry retaining technology, Shendong Coal has retained roadways totaling 34,013 meters in 18 working faces at six coal mines, reduced roadway excavation by 40,816 meters, and recycled 2,040,400 tonnes of additional coal, with economic return of 740 million yuan. The company has increased its resource recycling rate by 5 percentage points, and created the record entry retaining speeds of 18 meters/day and 418 meters/month at 4.2-meter-thick coal seam as well as the historical high of 5,190 meters in single-side entry retaining. Moreover, the technology has been applied in the company’s all working faces without severe disasters and with a mining height below 4.5 meters. The “research and application of safe, efficient non-pillar coal mining technology of Shendong Coal” won the Special Prize of China Energy’s Encouragement Fund in 2022.
The achievements and experiences in terms of gob-side entry retaining technology are invaluable wealth of Shendong Coal. After more than 10 years of practice and exploration, the company has opened up a new path of non-pillar coal mining with distinctive characteristics.
