Innovation is the heirloom of Jinchuan Group
In March 1978, Jinchuan Group was recognized as one of three bases for the comprehensive utilization of mineral resources in China. The black-and-white photographs hanging in the Science and Technology Hall of Jinchuan bear testimony to the hundreds of experts that carried out scientific and technological research across systems, industries, levels and disciplines to tackle many technical problems. Since then, technological innovation has become the heirloom of Jinchuan. The Jinchuan Science and Technology Research Conference has become a platform for Jinchuan Group and the national nonferrous metallurgy industry to carry out joint scientific and technological research on the core technical problems restricting the development of the industry, having been held 24 times as of June 2022.
Though Jinchuan has rich mineral resources, problems such as low mineral grade and difficulties in mining have become increasingly prominent after decades of exploration. According to Ma Yutian, President of the Jinchuan Group Nickel and Cobalt Research and Design Institute, in recent years, the company has tackled several key technical barriers, and the lowest minable industrial grade of Jinchuan nickel has been reduced from 0.5% to 0.3%, with lean ore resources accounting for over 50%.
Scientific and technological innovation must be achieved through the joint efforts of people. Since 2013, Jinchuan Group has held five scientific and technological research conferences. At the same time, the company has established a new type of enterprise-school cooperation with 16 universities, and has invited 9 institutions to establish the "Gansu Nickel-cobalt New Material Industry Technology Innovation Strategy Alliance". In 2021, Jinchuan Group, together with 8 scientific research institutes, 14 universities, and 15 large and medium-sized enterprises, established the "Gansu Nickel-cobalt Resource Efficient Utilization and New Product Development and Innovation Consortium", focusing on forefront technologies and their development direction. The company has also established a technological resources sharing mechanism, promoting resources sharing between universities and the company.
Furthermore, Jinchuan has also encouraged each unit to increase their investment in innovation. Since 2013, the annual increase rate of research investment has reached 32.6%.
Professional talents team contributes to the development of Jinchuan
With the continuous innovation of the talent mechanism, Jinchuan has cultivated the most professional working team, which has been contributing to the technological innovation of the company.
In the workshop of the precious metal smelting branch of Jinchuan Group Copper Co., Ltd., the comprehensive recovery and utilization project of precious metals, designed independently by Jinchuan Group, continuously refines precious metals 24 hours a day.
This project, completed in 2020, has the comprehensive recovery capacity of extracting seven precious metals, namely, gold, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium, from the waste of nickel and copper smelting. It adopts green and efficient extraction technology initiated by Pan Congming, the purification process leader of the precious metal smelting branch of Jinchuan Group Copper. The project has 52 patents, and its core technology won second prize in the National Science and Technology Progress Awards in 2020. Pan Congming has also become the first front-line industrial worker in northwest China to win the national award.
"Through more than 2,000 experiments and explorations, we have subverted the traditional process that has been used for 38 years, solved a series of problems, such as the poor adaptability of traditional processes to complex precious metal raw materials, and filled a number of gaps," said Pan. The production of qualified platinum, palladium, rhodium and iridium products marks Jinchuan Group having fully completed the largest platinum group metal production line for minerals in Asia, promoting the development of China's precious metal metallurgy technology.
There are many others who have brought the craftsmanship spirit to their work. Jinchuan Group has established a series of awards to carry out multi-level incentives. The annual investment of awards exceeds 15 million yuan, which has greatly inspired enthusiasm in the majority of employees for scientific and technological innovation and translated into innovation vitality. Since the 13th Five-year Plan (2016-20) period, Jinchuan Group has incubated 11,700 innovation achievements, 27,000 people have participated in technological innovation activities, and the employee participation rate has reached more than 91%. The innovation achievements have created over 500 million yuan of economic benefits.
Jinchuan strives to build a world-class enterprise
On November 10, Jinchuan Group and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement, and the Jinchuan-Huawei joint innovation center for the digital transformation of nonferrous industries and the Jinchuan-Huawei joint operation center for the digital transformation of nonferrous industries were unveiled.
"Jinchuan Group is currently facing the challenges of industrial transformation and upgrading, and the improvement of efficiency. It needs to use 5G, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data and other digital technologies to accelerate cross-field and collaborative innovation, and to promote production management reform. Jinchuan Group will work with Huawei to jointly build a ‘smart Jinchuan’, promote the interconnection of the nonferrous industry chain, and lead the digital transformation of the nonferrous industry," said Wang Yongqian.
In the past decades, Jinchuan Group has taken digital transformation to drive business growth as its starting point, carrying out the integration and innovation of 5G and other digital technologies. Since 2018, facing the application scenarios of nonferrous metallurgy mining, dressing, smelting and chemical industry, the transformation and upgrading of a number of intelligent equipment and production lines has been implemented using 5G, robots, mobile applications and other technologies to create smart mines, smart factories and other model projects.
The digital transformation of Jinchuan Group has also brought new engines for its subsidiaries, and laid a solid foundation for building Jinchuan into a world-class enterprise.
As a Fortune Global 500 company, Jinchuan Group will strive to achieve 520 billion yuan in revenue and 350 billion yuan of gross industrial output by 2025, realizing further optimization of its industrial layout.
"Jinchuan will implement the deployment requirements of the report to the 20th CPC National Congress, contribute to the revitalization of the national nickel and cobalt industry and the expansion of the industrial economy of Gansu, and build a world-class enterprise," said Wang Yongqian.
