Shi Jiuyun/Xinjiang Daily reporter Zhang Ting
In May, the Haba River is blue and the grass is green, and Xinjiang Haba River Ascher Copper Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ascher Copper"), located in the north of Haba County, is a hot production scene, with the motor roaring and the machine rumbling in the production workshop, and more than 1,000 employees fighting together in their posts.
Recently, at the 2024 Celebration of the "May Day" International Labor Day and the National May Day Labor Award and the National Worker Pioneer Commendation Conference held by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, Ascher Copper won the National May Day Labor Award.
"Winning the National May Day Labor Award this time is an affirmation of the hard work of all employees of Ascher Copper, and it is also an encouragement for the company's future development. Ascher Copper will continue to uphold the core values of 'creating value and common development', and contribute more to promoting high-quality economic and social development." Zou Jiyu, deputy general manager of Ascher Copper, said.
In recent years, Ascher Copper has adhered to the integrated production process of mining, disposal and reclamation, and achieved zero discharge of production and domestic wastewater through circular economy projects such as comprehensive utilization of tailings, recycling of production and domestic wastewater, and backfilling of waste rock, forming a green development model of production development and ecological optimization.
Benchmark first-class, deepen and improve quality development
On May 1, at the Ascher Copper ore transportation workshop, employees remotely controlled the underground explosion-free machine to crush large pieces of ore on the surface. At the same time, with the help of the production control platform built by the enterprise with an investment of more than 3,400 yuan, the staff of the dispatching room can observe and control the whole business chain of mine production in real time and dynamically from the surface production dispatching center, covering the whole business chain of mine production.
"When I first came to the mine, a lot of the data had to be collected in the field. In order to facilitate everyone's work, the dispatch room is also built next to the production site. Now, through the production control system, the real-time data of each vehicle and each equipment can be remotely dispatched, which is labor-saving and efficient. Wang Huiwen, head of the dispatching room of Ascher Copper, said.
In recent years, relying on the two-wheel drive of digital technology and new information technology, Ascher Copper has transformed and empowered the entire production chain in an all-round way with digitalization and intelligence, actively promoted the standardization of data governance, the digitalization of operations, and the intellectualization of production, promoted the transformation of mining and mineral processing from traditional factor-driven to data-driven and intelligent-driven, effectively improved the level of mine safety risk prevention and control and hidden danger investigation and management, and comprehensively accelerated the construction of intelligent mines.
Aerial view of Xinjiang Haba River Ascher Copper Co., Ltd., located north of Haba River County. Image courtesy of Ascher Copper
The Ascher Copper Mine is a high-grade ore body, but it is difficult to mine and select, and after 20 years of mining, problems such as declining grade and outburst ground pressure have become increasingly prominent. Improving resource utilization and building a competitive industrial chain are the questions that Ascher Copper has always faced.
Ran Chen, director of Ascher Copper Concentrator Plant, told reporters that in 2023, the company will implement key core projects such as zinc separation process transformation and centralized tailings reseparation, and the zinc recovery rate will increase from 49% to about 63%, making a historic breakthrough in the zinc recovery rate problem, increasing the efficiency by 42 million yuan per year, and increasing the total profit by about 45 million yuan per year through the implementation of centralized tailings re-separation.
This marks a historic breakthrough in the production problems that have plagued the company for 18 years after a series of technical transformation projects have been implemented. Ran Chen said.
Over the years, as a high-tech enterprise, the company has always adhered to the enterprise spirit of "hard work, pioneering and innovative", and cooperated with Chongqing University, Northeastern University, Beijing Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and other universities and research institutes to tackle more than 80 research and development innovation projects and invest more than 500 million yuan in research and development. It has obtained 3 national authorized invention patents, 29 utility model patents and 21 software copyrights.
With continuous benchmarking, benchmarking, and benchmarking, and breakthroughs in a larger range and at a deeper level, the management concept and development model of the mine are also rising, the process flow is constantly optimized, the labor productivity is increasing year by year, and the mine is entering the track of informatization and intelligent development.
Improving quality, controlling costs and increasing efficiency have become the cornerstone of Ascher Copper's unremitting pursuit and development.
Prioritize ecology and lead green development
"Ascher Copper is one of the key mining enterprises in Altay region, in view of the traditional mine production generally has high energy consumption, high pollution and other problems, the company through the development of scientific and technological research and development, the development of circular economy, the annual investment of nearly 10 million yuan in environmental protection special funds, to explore a small pollution, high efficiency of sustainable development road. Zhao Haixiang, deputy general manager and director of safety and environmental protection of Ascher Copper, said.
Ascher Copper employees are planting trees. Image courtesy of Ascher Copper
At present, the utilization rate of Ascher Copper's backwater has reached 100%, and no new water beneficiation has been realized, saving 6 million cubic meters of water every year. In the production workshop of Ascher Copper, the ore is crushed and milled into a powder like flour, and the entire crushing and grinding operation environment is equipped with a closed dust removal device. After crushing and grinding, and then through multi-stage flotation operations, copper, zinc and other metal minerals are preliminarily separated.
"Our beneficiation production uses a process that uses no new water. According to Ran Chen, the company set up a water tank underground to collect underground water, and after precipitation, it is sent to the dispensing pool of the concentrator plant as water for mineral processing production, which can reduce about 270,000 cubic meters / year of water transportation to the tailings pond. In addition, after the domestic sewage is treated by the company's self-built sewage treatment station, it is used for greening in summer, and all the purified water is used for mineral processing process water in winter. The whole mining area has realized the recycling of production water and domestic sewage with zero discharge, realizing the efficient use of resources and the friendly protection of the environment.
Over the years, Ascher Copper has made great efforts around "clear water" and "green mountains", and has invested more than 30 million yuan in greening, planted more than 290,000 trees, planted 320,000 square meters of grass, and the greening rate of the mining area is as high as more than 60%, and the greening area accounts for more than 98% of the greenable area, becoming a model of green mines. In recent years, the company has been rated as "National Green Mine", "Special Excellent Mining Enterprise for Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of Mineral Resources", "Demonstration Mine for the Promotion and Application of Advanced and Applicable Technologies for Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization of Mineral Resources", "National Industrial Tourism Demonstration Site" and many other honors.
Green has become the constant background color of Ascher Copper and the business card of development.
People-oriented, to achieve harmonious development
"I used to be a rock driller, earning 70,000 or 80,000 yuan a year, and now I am an anchor net trolley operator through external training and hands-on teaching by the company's masters. Sitting in the cab, with a protective cover above the head, four or five meters away from the working surface, is not only safe, but also doubles the income. Talking about the benefits brought by working over the years, Jiang Zhigang, who lives in Tieke Turmas Village, Saltamu Township, Haba County, is full of happiness in his words. Through the construction of intelligent mines, while improving the company's safety management level, 253 people have obtained professional titles.
On the morning of May 2, the auto mechanics of the Ascher Copper Lifting Workshop were repairing the waste rock hauling locomotive. Photo by Yang Xuejun
Ascher Copper has always adhered to the corporate tenet of "developing mining for the benefit of society", directly and indirectly driving the employment of more than 2,000 people in the local area, and more than 80% of the company's existing employees are from the local area. There are 110 households in Karabulak Village, with an average of at least one person working in the mine, and the per capita annual income is more than 130,000 yuan, which has greatly increased the per capita income of the villagers.
At the same time, the company actively participates in local counterpart assistance, education assistance and other activities, in recent years, donated more than 20 college students with educational difficulties, invested more than 140 million yuan in social responsibility funds, helped 3 villages, and directly benefited more than 800 farmers and herdsmen. The mountainous land around the mine was renovated, and thousands of acres of fertile land were built to benefit the local people.
Ascher, which has been established for 22 years, has always been people-oriented, forming a unique mining culture, and the spirit of hard work and pioneering innovation has been passed down from generation to generation.
Ascher Copper is not only a rich mine of resources, but also a "test field" and "rich production area" for enterprise party building innovation. Taking party building as the entry point of the company's corporate culture construction and taking employees as the core of work, it stimulates the innovation vitality of party building and condenses the innovative wisdom of all employees.
Respect the main position of employees and give full play to the initiative spirit of employees. Since the establishment of the Skill Master Studio in 2018, the company has organized and carried out 26 technical breakthroughs around the themes of cost reduction and efficiency increase, energy conservation and emission reduction, technological transformation, and safe production. Strive to build a learning-oriented and high-skilled team, and gradually form a new pattern of a hundred flowers blooming in the construction of enterprise technical talents.
Common development has become the original intention and mission of Ascher Copper.