People's Political Consultative Daily Online reports: Domestic "smart drainage" technology assists pumping and drainage in African mines.

March 28 – People's Political Consultative Daily Online featured Hengda Jianghai in a special report on Zambia's century project, titled "Domestic Smart Drainage Technology Boosts Mining Pumping Operations in Africa".

March 28 – People's Political Consultative Daily Online published an article titled "Domestic 'Smart Drainage' Technology Contributes to Mine Pumping Operations in Africa", highlighting Hengda Jianghai's major engineering project in Zambia — a landmark initiative dubbed the "Century Project". The original text reads:

HEFEI, March 28 – "If operations proceed smoothly, we expect to achieve the first-phase drainage target around May. The initial goal was to lower the water level to 580 meters, and we have already reached about 500 meters, with the water level dropping approximately two meters daily," explained a staff member on the morning of March 20. From an intelligent workshop in Changfeng County, Hefei City, Anhui Province, personnel were using a digital twin platform to monitor pumping operations at the No. 28 shaft of the Luanshya Copper Mine in Zambia, thousands of miles away.

Draining an abandoned mine is not only a massive undertaking but also a highly technical project. It is reported that the No. 28 shaft of the CNMC (Zambia) Luanshya Copper Mine had been flooded for decades, reaching a depth of 1,200 meters with an estimated water volume of 170 million cubic meters. The daunting task requires complete drainage within 21 months. Li Xing, the on-site digital twin project lead for Hefei Hengda Jianghai Pump Industry Co., Ltd. in Zambia, noted that due to the prolonged flooding and complex underground conditions, the project demands exceptionally high overall performance from the pumps. "Building on continuous product optimization, our team has conducted multiple field surveys at the Luanshya Copper Mine. We have implemented significant innovative upgrades in the new generation of large intelligent submersible pump drainage units, particularly in cooling, thrust bearings, and AI sensing. By optimizing the impeller's water discharge angle, we achieve the required flow rate without excessive power consumption," Li added.

On-site at the Luanshya Copper Mine in Zambia

According to reports, the new generation of large intelligent submersible drainage units has withstood multiple complex challenges including ultra-deep operations, high-intensity drainage, large flow rates, high head, multiphase flow, and intelligentization. It officially commenced operations at the Luanshya Copper Mine in May 2024. Equipped with IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence technologies, the unit features an intelligent control system and a digital twin platform, providing these large submersible pumps with a "smart brain" for remote monitoring. This system can track the operational parameters of the pumps in real time, keenly capturing every subtle change in the equipment and transmitting the data to the control center. Technicians can observe the working status of the pumps from thousands of miles away clearly and in real time on the platform, as if possessing "clairvoyant vision."

"During the initial design phase, the estimated daily drainage capacity was about 280,000 cubic meters. Our current actual flow rate is approximately 220,000 cubic meters per day. We are now operating eight pumps across four shafts. The original plan estimated completion in about 21 months, but we now expect to finish by the end of this year, three months ahead of schedule," said Li Xing. As the water level drops and cleanup efforts progress, the shaft engineering that had been submerged for 20 years is gradually being restored. To date, a total of 13 intelligent high-power submersible pumps have been deployed, achieving a cumulative drainage volume of 53.66 million cubic meters. The pump in Shaft 20 has been running continuously and stably for over eight months, setting a global record for the most powerful large submersible pump with the longest continuous operation time.

Source: People's Political Consultative Daily Network (PPCD Network), established in 2004, is a new media platform administered and operated by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. It serves as a significant internet platform for the news and propaganda efforts related to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the patriotic united front.