illuMINEation improves health, safety and environmental performance in the mining sector
Europe’s valuable mineral deposits can only be exploited, if the very strict legal and environmental requirements are met and the local communities do not perceive mining operations as a risk to their livelihood, rather as a source of work, income and prosperity.
For this very reason, health, safety and environmental (HS&E) standards and performance are considered the most important core values applicable to the mining industry sector. The implementation of technologies ensuring highest possible performance levels of those aforementioned values require the combination of many cutting-edge approaches, disciplines and collaboration of European experts from various different fields of expertise. The illuMINEation consortium recently met in Leoben, Austria, to discuss the progress of the research and innovation project and the important results achieved since the
start of the project.
Combining data to minimize risks
The illuMINEation project uses various sensing technologies comprising off-the-shelf low-cost sensors combined with sensors serving specific needs for integration into a digital mine management system. Valuable information acquired by extensive sensor networks are subsequently processed and analysed via sophisticated data analytics including machine learning algorithms in order to:
support a comprehensive and real-time HS&E, risk and sustainability assessment;
provide a cost-effective way of ensuring that high HS&E standards are kept;
ensure, in the long run, sustainable and economically efficient extraction of raw minerals that are crucially needed by Europe’s industry sectors; and to
facilitate a more transparent mining industry so that public acceptance, awareness and trust in mining activities can be increased.
Project partners
The high quality and multidisciplinary project consortium consists of 19 partners from six European countries (AT, SE, PL, DE, ES, FI), constituting a well-balanced assembly of world leading industrial and academic players from a multitude of technical fields and applications: Montanuniversitaet Leoben (AT; coordinator), Joanneum Research Forschungsgesellschaft MBH (AT), Epiroc Rock Drills AB (SE), ams AG (AT), KGHM Cuprum sp. z o.o. (PL), DMT GmbH & CO. KG (DE), GEOTEKO Serwis Sp. z o.o. (PL),
Lulea Tekniska University (SE), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ES), KGHM Polska Miedz SA (PL), Minera de Orgiva SL (ES), RHI Magnesita GmbH (AT), DSI Underground Austria GmbH (AT), Retenua AB (SE), IMA Engineering Ltd Oy (FI), Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation (ES), Worldsensing SL (ES), Instytut Chemii Bioorganiczney Polskiej Akademii Nauk (PL), Boliden Mineral AB (SE).
