1. Industry background: resource potential and strategic value

As a non-metallic mineral associated with coal resources, coal-based kaolin is mainly composed of kaolinite and is widely distributed in major coal-producing areas such as Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Shaanxi. Data show that of the 700 million tons of coal gangue produced in my country each year, about 30% is coal-based kaolin. Although this type of resource has huge reserves, it has not been effectively developed for a long time.

Driven by the national "dual carbon" strategy, the green transformation of the coal industry is imminent, and the resource utilization of coal gangue has become a key breakthrough. As an important raw material for industries such as ceramics, papermaking, and coatings, kaolin has a global market size of more than US$5 billion (2022). The development of coal-based kaolin can not only alleviate the pressure of depletion of traditional kaolin resources, but also realize the efficient utilization of coal-associated resources, with both economic benefits and environmental protection value.

2. Development status: technical bottlenecks and industry pain points

Although it is called "white gold", the development of coal-based kaolin still faces multiple constraints. Every year, more than 20 million tons of kaolin are discarded with coal gangue in China, and the actual utilization rate is less than 35%. Even among the recycled raw materials, more than 90% are only sold as low-priced ceramic blanks due to quality problems. The main pain points of the industry are reflected in:

Backward sorting technology: Traditional flotation and magnetic separation methods have poor adaptability to component fluctuations, and the product purity is low (Al2O3 content is generally <35%);

Serious waste of resources: Inefficient sorting leads to a large amount of kaolin being landfilled with coal gangue, causing land occupation and heavy metal pollution;

High production costs: The existing process has high energy consumption (ton sorting cost> 200 yuan) and strong dependence on manual labor;

Disconnected industrial chain: The upstream sorting technology is not well matched with the downstream application needs, and the development of high value-added products is lagging behind.

3. Breaking the deadlock: Intelligent sorting drives industrial upgrading

In recent years, with the wave of technological innovation and industrial upgrading, an intelligent equipment called "Mingde Artificial Intelligence Sorting Machine" has quietly entered the mining area, injecting key momentum into the transformation of this traditional mineral. The equipment achieves three major innovations through the "perception-decision-execution" technology system:

Intelligent perception system

• Using hyperspectral imaging technology to collect multi-dimensional feature data of ore in real time

• Establishing a component database with a detection accuracy of 98% for key indicators

Dynamic decision center

• Building an adaptive AI model based on deep learning algorithm

• Real-time adjustment of sorting parameters through edge computing

Efficient execution module

• High-pressure gas injection device responds in 0.1 seconds and has millimeter-level sorting accuracy

• Sorting efficiency of 100 tons/hour, 10 times higher than traditional processes

Practical cases show significant benefits: the extraction rate of a project in Shanxi increased from 25% to 65%, and the cost of tailings treatment decreased by 40%; an enterprise in Inner Mongolia increased its revenue by 8 million yuan through brick making from tailings, while reducing dust pollution and transportation carbon emissions. The high-purity raw materials (Al2O3>40%) after sorting lay the foundation for calcination modification and nano-level processing.

IV. Industrial Ecological Reconstruction and Future Outlook

The application of Mingde AI sorting machine is reshaping the industrial landscape:

• Upstream: Promote the transformation of coal enterprises to the "coal-soil co-production" model

• Midstream: Support the development of high-end products such as calcined kaolin and molecular sieves

• Downstream: Help the ceramic industry to replace imports and expand the application of environmentally friendly materials

In the future, as AI sorting technology will further develop, it will surely promote the coal-based kaolin industry to green, high-end and intelligent.

Green: Reduce the use of reagents and water consumption throughout the process

High-end: Promote the extension of coal-based kaolin to high-end product lines

Intelligent: Accurate, efficient and intelligent ore sorting process

The release of the value of coal-based kaolin is essentially a practice of "technological innovation driving resource innovation". Mingde artificial intelligence sorting machine not only solves the industry's bottleneck problem, but also opens up the industrial space of "turning waste into treasure". At the same time, driven by policy support and technological iteration, coal-based kaolin has gradually transformed from a "black byproduct" to a new engine for the transformation of resource-based cities, injecting new momentum into the low-carbon economy.