German coal mining solution provider DBT GmbH has acquired a Chinese coal mining technology for more than 15 million yuan in the . This is the first time that China's coal industry has exported mining technology, People's Daily reported yesterday.

China's Yankuang Group owns the intellectual property rights of the technology producing hydraulic support. Jin Tai, vice president of the company in charge of the development of the innovation, was honored an award at the Asia Mining Congress in Calcutta last year.

The deal licenses non-exclusive, non-transferable limited use of the longwall top coal caving (LTCC) technology to the German company.

Compared with conventional methods, the new support is featured with compact dimension, simple structure, better reliability, higher efficiency, faster mobility and easier automation. It has a longer loading lifespan than set by the European standard and brings 1.5 million tons of extra output to unit production.

DBT will offer 128 such supports to Australia to build the world's first longwall top coal face with this technology.

(People's Daily February 9, 2006)