Opencast Mining of Lignite: Operation of Belts Without Supervision.

With the exception of the loaders in the vicinity of the central conveyor depot, all the drive stations on the lines of conveyor belts in the Frimmersdorf opencast mine have been running for more than one year without any operators. During this period, the task of monitoring the installation has been assumed by two motorized groups of checkers, who drive along the line of the conveyor belts every two hours, and by automatic control devices. The author describes the experience gained and the assessment of tests with various control systems.