In the development of mining, consulting companies/design institutes are an inseparable topic. The design, review, equipment selection, and other aspects of the project require the participation of design institutes. At the same time, the growth of mining equipment and design institutes are also complementary.

Due to historical reasons, Chinese mining design institutes are divided into coal and non-coal. Over the course of decades of growth, each design institute has been deeply cultivating its own mining field, with little interference or even communication. Although this isolation has a certain protective effect on the cross competition in various mining fields, the reference and development of many mining equipment has been hindered, the sharing and reference of design concepts and business models have also been restricted, and we hope that communication and exchange can bring further growth.

Coal Design Institute

Due to the fact that coal involves different projects such as open-pit mines, underground mines, and coal preparation plants, and the proportion of coal in China's energy consumption is relatively large, the occurrence of coal is also different, and there are relatively many supporting design institutes. From the current development situation, the vast majority of design institutes related to open-pit mines and mining are state-owned enterprises, while design institutes related to coal preparation plants have shown a pattern of blooming flowers.

State owned enterprise design institutes are mainly distributed in China Coal Technology & Engineering Group and China National Coal Group. China Coal Technology & Engineering Group mainly include Beijing HuaYu, Nanjing Institute, Shenyang Institute, Wuhan Institute, etc. They have certain advantages in the design and general contracting projects of open-pit mines, underground mining, and coal preparation plants. The design institutes under China National Coal Group mainly include Tianjin Institute and Xi'an Institute. Xi'an Institute has strong mine design and comprehensive strength. In addition, Taiyuan Design and Research Institute Group Co., Ltd. of the coal industry was merged into Shanxi Taixin Economic Integration Development Investment Group in 2021.

Among private enterprises, DaDi performs particularly well among companies that have both open-pit mining, mining, and coal preparation plant design and general contracting projects. Other enterprises mainly focus on coal preparation plant design, such as JOHNFINLAY, Techgart, Beijing Guohua Technology, YuanZhiHan, BinHaiJinDi, etc. The design institutes mentioned above are all Class A, and there are many Class B design institutes, which will not be listed in this article.

China has a relatively rich reserve of coal resources. After entering the 21st century, with the rapid development of the national economy, energy consumption has become increasingly high. In the past 20 years of development, there have been significant reminders for the design of open-pit mines, underground mines, and coal preparation plants. We have accumulated rich experience in project practice and the design has been relatively standardized. However, the overall design standards are compared to other industries, there are still many shortcomings in the depth and standardization of design, which are more prominent in the process of enterprises going global.

Due to the large number of coal related projects in China, there are relatively few domestic design institutes that have truly gone global. Design institutes related to open-pit mines and mining are even fewer that have participated in overseas project consulting and design. Among them, in the Thar Coalfield Block II Coal-Electricity Integration Project, which is the general contracting of CMEC, DaDi. participated in the consulting and design of an annual output of 7.6 million tons of open-pit brown coal mines.

In terms of consulting and design for foreign coal preparation plants, Techgart has participated more, especially in multiple projects contracted by MEILIN in Russia, bringing domestic design experience and concepts to the practice of foreign projects. In leading domestic coal design institutes to participate in consulting practices for foreign projects, MEILIN has made indelible contributions, especially in Russia, where coal resources are abundant.

In the process of going global, there are still many problems for enterprises, which have brought many bad habits from China to foreign countries. For example, in a design institute's general contracting project abroad, the core process equipment was cut corners and shoddy in production and manufacturing, becoming a negative case for the country where the project is located. Since then, the country has no longer imported such process equipment from China, causing great obstacles and negative impacts for Chinese brands to go global. At the same time, there are differences in design standards, depth, and other aspects in the coal industry between China and some countries, which also require enterprises to humbly learn and accumulate experience in project practice.

In the competition of the international market, the presence of China Coal Design Institute is still scattered. We hope that domestic design institutes can leverage their consulting and design experience, actively go global, better participate in foreign projects, create consulting and design brands, and serve more foreign users.

Non-Coal Design Institute

In the field of non-coal mines, there are non-ferrous mines such as gold and copper mines, black mines such as iron ore, and non-metallic mines such as graphite. There are many types of minerals involved, and after so many years of development, many brand enterprises have also been created. Unlike coal design institutes, most companies that are not part of coal mine design institutes do not have their own equipment companies. Apart from consulting and design services, the equipment for general engineering contracting is mostly outsourced.

Due to the wide variety of non-coal mining resources and the different development priorities of various departments after the founding of the People's Republic of China, design institutes with different focuses have been formed for non-ferrous mines, iron mines, and other industries. Of course, metallurgical design institutes are also supporting mining and washing. Regarding metallurgical design institutes, this article will briefly summarize them.

The comprehensive strength of the design institutes under China Minerals Corporation (MCC) should be considered the strongest, and the strength of China ENFEI cannot be ignored in the comprehensive design institutes of non-ferrous mines, iron ore, non-metallic mines, and metallurgy; The northern part of MCC mainly focuses on the design of mines and smelting in the direction of iron ore; MCC Chang Tian also leans towards the direction of iron ore. Other design institutes under MCC Group, such as MCC Saidi, MCC JingCheng, MCC South, MCC HuaTian, MCC East, and MCC JiaoNai, all lean towards metallurgical design. Without the support of overseas projects, the homogenization competition among the design institutes under MCC is relatively severe. Enfei has encountered corresponding problems in its development in previous years, with domestic competition deteriorating and fewer projects. In the past two to three years, the situation has been relatively better after the development of foreign projects.

The comprehensive design institute under China Nonferrous Metals Group is mainly China RuiLin, with strength comparable to China Enfei. Other design institutes, such as Lanzhou Nonferrous Metallurgical Design and Research Institute under China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection, Changsha Nonferrous Metallurgical Design and Research Institute under China Aluminum International, and Tongling Nonferrous Design and Research Institute, have played an important role in the development and construction of mines both domestically and internationally.

Mining giants such as China Minerals, China Nonferrous Metals Group, and Zijin Mining have their own mining resources in many countries, which provides a great opportunity and springboard for China's design institutes to go global, showcase our design concepts and strength to more users, and fully understand the design standards of different countries and regions. In terms of shaping international brands, some non-coal design institutes in China have indeed done a good job, I hope more enterprises can participate in the trade of design consulting services.

Regarding the issue of limited communication between coal and non-coal mine design institutes mentioned earlier, it has also been exposed in recent years. The process design, equipment research and development, and mine construction in both directions have been deeply developed, but the research and development achievements in the two fields have not been well shared and integrated. For example, the screening machine and coal fields have become very mature, but non coal mines have stagnated; For example, flotation machines in the coal industry cannot be applied to non-ferrous mines, and the participation of flotation machines in coal projects in non-ferrous mines is particularly limited; The design of process flow is closely related to the research and development of equipment, and we hope that communication and integration can bring better development.

In terms of building an international brand, we hope that coal design institutes can also take the initiative to go out and work alongside non coal mining design institutes, so that more users around the world can better understand us.

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