Paradigm Shift in Mining

New EU Project to set the Foundations for a Holistic Digital Transformation of Europe's Mining Industry

The Horizon 2020 project titled illuMINEation with a budget of 8.9 Million Euro is set to kick-off in September 2020. The project's vision is to tap the full potential a "digital mine" offers by embedding digital thinking into the heart of the mining businesses, by improving digital skills of mining personnel and by enhancing the cooperation along the entire digital mining value chain.

Europe urgently needs to reduce its import dependency in respect to a multitude of raw materials. In order to do so, Europe's mining industry must completely redesign the process of traditional mining via the adoption of pioneering innovations and extensive use of data analytics. The EU-funded illuMINEation project will highlight significant aspects of digitalisation in underground mining activities with the core objective of improving the efficiency as well as health and safety of European mining operations and its personnel.

Towards Improved Safety of Mining Operations with Retenua's Machine Vision Technology

In the scope of IlluMINEation, Retenua's AI-driven RefleX™ machine vision technology will be further optimized, adapted and tested for demanding underground mining environments. RefleX™ represents the core technology of Retenua's product line emitrace® and involves both embedded infrared stereo vision hardware and smart algorithms for detecting and tracking workers and equipment from mobile heavy machinery.

Especially the ability to reliably detect worksite personnel and selected infrastructure in the vicinity of vehicles not only in good daylight conditions but also in poorly illuminated environments makes Retenua's solution highly suitable for use in both above and underground mining. The technology evaluation and customization will be primarily carried out in collaboration with project partner Epiroc and represent an important step towards improved safety standards in mining operations.