LOOPS 2.0 #2 The sustainable future of the mining industry
Does the world of ground-breaking innovation excite you? Well, look no further than Loops!
On the 5th of November, we hosted our exciting episode 2 of Loops 2.0.
In the episode, we wanted to showcase the sustainable future of mining and how innovative projects were helping achieve a sustainable future in the industry.
Veltha would like to introduce you to ROBOMINERS and Dig_IT, two Horizon 2020 projects that are paving the way for a sustainable future with their exciting technologies to advance the mining industry with circular and innovative approaches.
The two projects are very different from one another but with the same goal of a sustainable future and safety for all those involved.
ROBOMINERS: a project aimed at facilitating EU access to mineral raw materials. Claudio Rossi, the project coordinator, addressed us with his fascinating presentation on the project’s resilient bio-inspired modular robotic miners. Claudio started the presentation by highlighting Europe’s need for critical raw materials and how ROBOMINERS sets itself as a response to the call. He then began to talk about the innovative approach of their project that combines the creation of a new mining ecosystem with novel ideas from other sectors, in particular with the inclusion of disruptive concepts from robotics.
The project looks to reopen the abandoned mines located across Europe without the need for recommissioning or without the need for dewatering the mine. The developed robotics will then be able to access small deposits across the mines. Claudio gave insights into the mining technology they’re creating from the research to the production of robotics. By designing a new approach to mining strategy and mine design, Claudio addressed the project’s creation of a mining ecosystem that will help shape their project and the future of mining.
ROBOMINERS’ visions are long-term with the goal of delivering a considerable amount of raw materials to the EU and to have full autonomy self-awareness robotics to contribute to this objective. The vision is long-term but with a clear image of circularity and safety within this industrial sector.
Dig_IT: a project creating a human-centered internet of things platform for the sustainable future of mining. Presenting the Dig_IT project was Amal AIrish. The project is a partnership that consists of 16 organisations across Europe. Amal explained the insightful process in how Dig_IT plans to help the mining industry in Europe: they plan to increase mining efficiency by 17%, tackle environmental factors such as the project’s vision of a 19% reduction of CO2eq, and create 310 new jobs across Europe.
The platform is being used across 5 cases in mines throughout Europe, Amal showed us the challenges and needs of the mines and how Dig_IT’s technology will address the issues that are affecting the mining industry.
To finish the webinar we asked both projects what they think about the circular economy approach in the mining industry and the challenges that may arise implementing it. Dig_IT believes their project is taking a circular economy approach. The project is looking to close the loop in the mining industry as the process of resource, product, renewable, and resource is seen throughout their project. Dig_IT has goals of achieving circular production with minimum waste.
ROBOMINERS believe their vision is circular with the technology they’re creating as it will be used to tackle mining issues when it comes to material waste and using the technology to reuse the materials resulting in a circular approach. Environmental impacts are an important issue as they believe when the mining will be done nothing will be left behind to cause damage, and the footprint of the project will be minimal.
We enjoyed having ROBOMINERS and Dig_IT on our webinar and look forward to seeing their future developments and goals.
If you enjoyed reading about the episode check out the full episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEF6gZO9u3w
Stay turned more information on our upcoming third episode of Loops, where we will be inviting Horizon 2020 projects GRETE and Glaukos. Join us in a discussion on how both projects are improving the life cycle of textiles!
