Abstract:
In the field of contemporary mineral resource development, “safety, environmental friendliness, intelligence, and efficiency” has become the core guiding principle and technological development paradigm for global open-pit mining. This concept stems from a profound reflection on the history of mining engineering development. In a systematic review of historical mining accident cases, the fundamental mechanism of disaster occurrence was determined to be closely related to an ambiguous cognition of geological conditions and the uncertainty of disaster threat assessment. These two cognitive deficiencies constitute the main limiting factors in mine production safety. This study considers the current production practice of open-pit mines, systematically sorts the logical characteristics of hidden disaster-causing factors, and focuses on four key dimensions: geological structural anomalies, hydrogeological conditions, distribution of adverse geological bodies, and fire hazards, thereby deeply analyzing the mechanisms that impact the safety of open-pit mining. Through a combination of historical retrospective and bibliometric analysis, the development trajectory of mining geological exploration technology is divided into four distinct stages of technological evolution: early empirical, instrumental, digital, and the current intelligent detection stage. This presents a complete paradigm shift in hidden disaster factor detection technology from qualitative to quantitative, from single to comprehensive, and from artificial to intelligent. In terms of technical system research, this study is based on systems engineering theory and constructs a multilevel classification framework for mining exploration technology, dividing the existing detection technologies into three levels: basic, professional, and intelligent. To detect hidden disasters in open-pit mines, a systematic evaluation and comparative study of existing methods was conducted considering four aspects: technical performance characteristics (including technical indicators such as resolution and detection depth), research progress (covering academic dimensions such as theoretical innovation and method improvement), engineering application effectiveness (involving practical indicators such as applicable conditions and operational efficiency), and future development potential (including forward-looking evaluations such as technology integration and intelligent upgrades). The research further reveals the multidimensional challenges of current detection methods from three perspectives: technological bottlenecks, engineering application barriers, and management practice pain points, including but not limited to limited detection accuracy, difficulties in multisource data collaboration, economic cost constraints, monitoring cycle limitations, insufficient interpretability of mechanisms, lack of data integrity, and fluctuations in result reliability. For future technological development, this study proposes three innovative breakthrough paths. First, a theoretical and technical system for collaborative inversion of multiple physical fields should be constructed to achieve deep integration of geological information. Second, paradigm innovation of intelligent perception and early warning technology is promoted to establish a dynamic risk assessment mechanism. Finally, the collaborative development framework between the standard system and green technology should be improved to form a sustainable technological ecosystem. These multimodal fusion and intelligent evolution strategies are expected to break through existing technological bottlenecks, provide strong technical support and theoretical guidance for the high-quality development of open-pit mines in China, and ultimately achieve coordinated and sustainable development of economic benefits, safety production, and ecological environment protection in mineral resource development. This research not only has important theoretical innovation value but also provides a systematic technical solution and development roadmap for safety in mining production practices, which has important practical significance for promoting technological progress and industrial upgrading in China’s mining industry.