The Publicity Department of the CPC Jiangxi Provincial Committee and the Jiangxi Provincial Federation of Social Sciences have announced the second batch of provincial philosophy and social science laboratories. JXUST’s “Strategic Mineral Resources Process Optimization and Intelligent Decision-Making Laboratory” was selected, one of only three in the province. The recognition marks a major breakthrough in interdisciplinary philosophy and social science research and organized research at the university, and a new step in integrating mining engineering with social science decision-making.
The laboratory draws on JXUST’s deep roots in mining engineering and integrates the university’s strengths in management science and engineering, applied economics and other disciplines. It has built an interdisciplinary experimental research system for mining that is guided by resource strategy, supported by engineering technology, driven by digital and intelligent decision-making, and grounded in industrial applications. Focusing on national and regional needs—safeguarding strategic mineral resources, upgrading the nonferrous metals industry, and promoting high-quality development of Jiangxi’s rare earth and tungsten resources—the laboratory has set three research directions: mining process optimization, intelligent mining decision-making and mining industry policy. It uses a rare-earth and rare-metals big data platform and a virtual simulation platform for mining and metallurgy processes as infrastructure, and intelligent optimization algorithms and industrial decision support systems as core tools. Its goal is to produce replicable and scalable theoretical results and practical solutions for mineral resource governance.
In recent years, the laboratory has drawn on Ganzhou’s industrial base as the “kingdom of rare earths” and “world capital of tungsten.” It has built a specialized database for the rare-earth and rare-metals industry covering 10 categories of data—news, products, patents, prices, imports and exports, and energy consumption—along with a virtual simulation platform for mining and metallurgy processes. This has created a research support system that connects data with practical scenarios and combines engineering with decision-making. More than 60 think-tank reports have received favorable instructions from national leaders, senior central government officials and top provincial Party and government leaders, or been adopted by relevant national, provincial and municipal departments. Related research has won first and second prizes in the Ministry of Education’s Awards for Outstanding Scientific Research in Higher Education Institutions for three consecutive sessions.
