AFRY – ÅF Digital Solutions AB

AFRY, formed in 1895, is a Swedish engineering, consulting and design company within the fields of energy, industry, infrastructure and information technology with a headcount of 17,500 consultants all over the world. AFRY is a starting point for innovation and collaboration, making connected solutions easy to use and cost efficient, by utilizing the power of dedicated engineers and designers with disruptive ideas from all markets to satisfy our client’s needs. AFRY has experience in designing processes and improving them by connecting batteries, cars, roads, people and more.
AFRY provides services for wireless communication systems with increased security and stability. We help in finding solutions based on long experience in connectivity and in-depth knowledge in IT security and cyber security. AFRY’s advisory services are based on our expertise in industry and knowledge in IT-security and radio solutions.

AFRY is mainly involved in WP 3, Connectivity and positioning, and is the lead participant of the task focusing on operational roles, tools and processes for connectivity in mines.

Boliden Mineral AB

Boliden is a high-tech metal company with its own mines and smelters that work over the long term to guarantee society’s supply of base metals and precious metals through the mining of ore (minerals) and the production and delivery of high-quality metals to industry. Boliden is an industry leader in terms of sustainable metal production from deposits to recycling used materials.

Boliden aims to provide two test sites for connectivity and positioning in the Boliden area in northern Sweden, the underground mines in Kankberg and Kristineberg.

Combitech

Combitech is an independent technical consulting company and part of the defense and security group Saab AB. Combitech has a Nordic base but works also internationally. Combitech has, among multiple business areas, deep knowledge in Cyber security, safety, connectivity, traffic control, digitalization, and software development and strives for creating a safe, sustainable and resilient society together with our customers and partners. Through Saab, Combitech also has access to certain intellectual property rights. In partnership, Epiroc and Combitech have developed a solution for fleet and traffic management of autonomous machines for underground mines.

In this project, Combitech will develop new functionality in the area of material handling and logistics, i.e. WP 6 and WP7. Technology developed within the project scope will be verified in the real mining environment. Combitech will then use the outcome of the project as a base for the swift commercializing of features and concepts as parts of Epiroc´s automation portfolio.  Combitech has the liberty to use the developed IP in other industry applications outside the mining business.

Ericsson AB

Ericsson AB is a world leader in communications technology, providing equipment, software and services, including to enable industry transformation through reliable connectivity and digitalization of information.

Ericsson is the lead participant of WP3, Connectivity and positioning, which will design a 5G network optimized for mining systems to demonstrate how such a network solves comprehensive connectivity needs for a complete mine system.

KGHM Cuprum Ltd.

KGHM CUPRUM Ltd. Research & Development Centre is a member of the KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. Group. The company provides an engineering and research consulting service for the mining industry. It operates in all service areas linked with mining activity, from project evaluation, through research and development, to project management and supervision of the implementation stage. The company conducts scientific and technological research in geology and hydrogeology, mining, rock mass mechanics, mine ventilation, automation, electrification and mechanization, ore processing, tailings disposal, surveying, and environmental protection.

KGHM CUPRUM is working on various problems associated with mining in the Legnica-Głogów Copper Region but also provides solutions for coal mines in Upper Silesia as well as for the Salt Mines in Wieliczka and Kłodawa. The company’s specialists also take part in a variety of projects outside the territory of Poland. Contributions to the NEXGEN-SIMS project will be provided mainly by the Rock Engineering and System Analytics Departments, which are focused on solving problems in the area of geomechanics, geotechnology, mining geophysics, blasting techniques, and diagnosis of technological processes in the context of their automation and robotization. Employees of the company are licensed as State Mining Authority experts for mining plant maintenance and have extensive experience in conducting underground measurements and providing solutions for underground workings stability purposes.

KGHM Cuprum leads the task involving the preparation and implementation of a pilot rock stress relief monitoring system.

KGHM Polska Miedź S.A.

KGHM Polska Miedź S.A has been a major global copper and silver producer for 60 years. The Polish copper deposits – among the biggest in the world – are mined by three underground mines: Lubin, Polkowice-Sieroszowice, and Rudna. The extracted material is enriched in concentrator plants, while the production of metals as copper, silver, gold, lead, and others take place in metallurgical facilities: Copper Smelter/Refineries in Głogów and Legnica and the Cedynia Wire Rod Plant. Apart from the metals mentioned, the mines of the KGHM Group also produce molybdenum, nickel, palladium, and platinum. The KGHM Group ranks among the world’s largest producers of silver and copper and employs a total of around 34 thousand people. It is also the only company in Europe producing rhenium and ammonium perrhenate from its own resources.

KGHM Polska Miedź will provide a test site in the Lubin mine for KGHM Cuprum´s monitoring system for determining the effectiveness of multi-face blasting operations in terms of rock burst hazard prevention. KGHM will also conduct the field test of battery loader in the Rudna mine for evaluation in WP1.

K+S Minerals and Agriculture GmbH

K+S considers itself a customer-focused, independent minerals company for the Agriculture, Industry, Consumers, and Communities segments. Our more than 14,000 employees enable farmers to provide nutrition for the world, solutions that keep industries going, improve daily life for consumers and provide safety in the winter. We continually meet the growing demand for mineral products from production sites in Europe, North and South America as well as a worldwide sales network. We strive for sustainability because we are deeply committed to our responsibilities to people, environment, communities and economy in the regions in which we operate.With a history of more than 125 years, K+S has more experience than any of its competitors when it comes to extracting and processing potash salts. The unique deposits in Germany, which in addition to potash-containing minerals such as sylvinite and carnallite also include magnesium compounds such as kieserite, supply valuable natural raw materials. K+S extracts potash and magnesium crude salts atsix mines sites in Germany, which are further processed on site and at a former mining site to create end products or intermediate products.

K+S is the lead participant for WP5, Robotized measurement inspections before and after blasting, and will provide mining environment at their Werra mine site for developing and testing the novel robotized solutions for performing fully safe measurement inspections in underground working environments.

Luleå University of Technology

Luleå University of Technology (LTU) has a significant experience in conducting high value research and undertaking industrial R&D projects. Moreover, LTU is one of Europe’s leading mining universities and has been involved in large European and National projects with Atlas Copco, Sandvik, ABB, Volvo, LKAB, SAAB, SSC, ERICSSON and almost all the major Swedish process industries. LTU is the host for the national Swedish Strategic Mining Innovation program and is the number one University in Sweden in receiving external grants from the Industrial sector, which proves the leading position of the University in applied and real-life connected research. LTU participates in the NEXGEN SIMS project with three departments namely: a) the Department of Civil, Environment and Natural Resources Engineering, b) the Department of Computer Science, Space and Electrical Engineering, and d) the Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences.

LTU is the lead participant of WP1, Transformation and design strategies for electrification and automation, and also leads the work in WP2, Digital miner. LTU is also a key contributor to WP5, Robotized measurement inspections before and after blasting, and the part of WP8 aiming to develop a virtual reality environment dedicated to education and training, as well as modern mining educational modules for both university students and professional education.

LTU Business AB

LTU Business AB is the largest business development company in northern Scandinavia. We specialize in business development and innovation management. In addition to being the official Technology Transfer Office and Industry Liaison Office for Luleå University of Technology, we serve clients from both private and public sector with our professional services. We are situated in the northernmost region ofSweden, a region where multiple raw materials related startups are created every year.We hold a more than thirty-five-year track record of running industry collaboration and commercialization projects in order to create growth, and more than 500 companies have gained our support in bringing their products and services to the market. Our experience in business development has made us a trusted partner for innovation management on the international arena including numerous European projects in industry sectors including mining, renewable energy, ICT and more. We are a limited non-profit company fully owned by Luleå University of Technology. Our customers are public organizations, industrial organizations as well as our owner, Luleå University of Technology.

LTU Business is the lead participant for WP8, Outreach, involved in dissemination and communication, as well as exploitation and innovation management, and the creation of a yearly business value report.

Mobilaris MCE AB

Mobilaris is a software company focusing on mining solutions within decision support, location and tracking, planning and scheduling. Our product portfolio is based on a platform designed for decision support application in mining. We have both server side, control-room and mobile applications and we cover situational awareness (including location technologies), traffic awareness and control, planning and dispatch, safety application, as well as integration with other systems. For a current and up-to-date picture of our current offerings, please see www.mobilaris.se/mce. We expect to use various aspects of our platform in this project. The core platform will enable integration with other systems, the data capturing and storage capabilities will power analytics and machine learning applications, our mobile application platform (Mobilaris Onboard), partly developed in an earlier research project (SIMS) will be used to deliver high accuracy location data underground which can be used in variousother tasks of the project (logistics, fleet management etc.).

Mobilaris is the lead participant for WP4, AI-powered fleet optimization, which is centred around creating the best possible toolset to measure, monitor, analyse and control utilization of the production apparatus in an underground mine.

OZ Minerals Ltd.

OZ Minerals is a copper-focused, global, modern mining company based in South Australia. Listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX100) OZ Minerals has a growth strategy focused on creating value for all stakeholders. In South Australia, it owns and operates the copper-gold mine at Prominent Hill and the copper-gold mine at Carrapateena. The company has a pipeline of earn-in agreements with experienced exploration companies in Australia and internationally. It also has an operating mine and a significant pipeline of development and exploration opportunities in the Carajás and Gurupi provinces in Brazil.

OZ Minerals aims to gain and share experiences with the otherwise all-European consortium, providing an opportunity to work closely with an Australian mining company.

RWTH Aachen University

RWTH Aachen University is the largest university of technology in Germany and one of the most renowned in Europe. Every year, numerous international students and scientists come to the university to benefit from its high-quality courses and excellent facilities, both of which are recognised at an international level. RWTH Aachen University is in the process to become an integrated, interdisciplinary technical university. The engineering focus of the university is associated with the natural sciences and medicine. The arts, social sciences and economics, structurally linked to the core disciplines, also make a significant contribution to the university’s teaching and research profile. With its 260 institutes in nine faculties, RWTH Aachen is among the leading European scientific and research institutions. 45,628 students in 162 courses of study are enrolled in the winter semester of 2019/20, including 11,280 international students from more 137 countries.The Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies develops technologies for the automation and digitalization of mining machines and processes to enable safe, efficient and responsible raw material extraction. An important core area of the Institute is therefore the development of sensor technologies and corresponding algorithms for the generation, acquisition and processing of data and information along the entire data-information-value-chain. The challenging environmental conditions in mines place particularly high demands on people, machines, sensors and algorithms and require robust, connected and intelligent systems and solutions.

RWTH University is one of the key contributors to WP3, Connectivity and positioning, and particularly the tasks aiming to develop AI-enabled algorithms for achieving a multisensoral and data-driven fused 6D positioning for mining operations, e.g. autonomous mining machines and drones, and to demonstrate a positioning system as a service.