Recently, good news came from the 51st International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva: the project “Water-Preserved Coal Mining Technology System and Its Large-Scale Application,” led by Professor Fan Limin’s team from the School of Mines at China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), won the highest honor of the exhibition – the Jury’s Special Commendation Gold Award.

The project covers the entire lifecycle of coal mining, including exploration, design, extraction, and mine closure restoration, forming a complete technical chain of “quantitative evaluation before mining, precise water-preserving control during mining, structural restoration after mining, and whole-process monitoring and early warning.” The approach of “encouraging the adoption of green mining technologies such as water-preserved mining and backfill mining” has been incorporated into the Ecological and Environmental Code of the People’s Republic of China, becoming a nationally mandated and promoted green coal mining technology and providing key technical support for the green transformation of China’s coal industry.

The International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva is jointly organized by the Swiss Federal Government, the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It is the world’s oldest and largest event of its kind. This year’s exhibition attracted more than 1,000 innovative achievements from over 40 countries and regions, with the Chinese delegation presenting 237 projects. The Jury’s Special Commendation Gold Award is the highest level of gold award at the exhibition, selected by the jury from among the gold award winners, with an award rate of less than 3%.