UNEXMIN at the 3rd Meggen Raw Materials Days – International Seminar and Conference

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The BDG (Professional Association of the German Geoscientists) invited its members as well as domestic and foreign experts to the 3rd Meggen Raw Materials Days at the Galileo Park, in Lennestadt-Meggen, from September 13-15, 2017. During the three days a total of about 150 geologists from Germany, England, Bulgaria, Switzerland and the United States answered the invitation. On the first day, a seminar supported by the European Federation of Geologist’s (EFG) – training endorsement programme – was offered for these participants, in order to ensure the prescribed continuous professional development program.

Audience at the 3rd Meggen Raw Materials Days

During the conference, a number of high-level speakers provided insights into the raw materials’ exploration, including salt, lignite and lithium in Germany, Ethiopia or Australia. Furthermore, presentations addressed current developments regarding various post-mining activities such as rehabilitation of ore mines, nature conservation on mining sites or mine water treatment. Other presentations on risk management in abandoned mining, novel drilling techniques in the area of tailing piles and the problems in salt cavern construction were also addressed.

The large interest of the audience in the UNEXMIN project has shown, once again, the relevance and the demand for the new cutting-edge UNEXMIN technology with manifold applications in the raw materials and mining sectors. Newly established contacts with relevant stakeholders will contribute to the successful accomplishment of the overall project and will ensure that the UNEXMIN project meets the user requirements during the development of the UX-1 robot.

UNEXMIN will present at the Real-Time Mining Conference, October in Amsterdam

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In two weeks from now, on the 10th and 11th of October, the Real-Time Mining conference will be held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The conference will count with four EU-funded projects as core organizers – and UNEXMIN is one of those projects.

This intra-european conference has as main objectives, (1) to bring together researchers related to innovation on resource extraction and (2) establish synergies and exchange ideas between different fields of activity – all related to the exploration and exploitation of mineral raw materials.

The topics for this conference will work around :

  • Positioning and material tracking
  • Automated material characterization
  • Resource modelling and value of information
  • Process optimization
  • Data management

During the two days the UNEXMIN project will be presented in the meeting with some important contributes: an overview of the project and talks about some of the most important scientific instrumentation that the UX-1 robot will employ. The latter will focus on the magnetic field analyser unit and the multispectral unit, instruments that are being specifically developed by the UNEXMIN team of University of Miskolc (UNIM).

Position of the instruments on the UX-1 robot: left) Magnetic field analyser unit; right) multispectral unit

We hope to give a positive contribution to the meeting, first by letting the audience know what we are developing as a new technology line. We aim to establish some profitable discussions that make the projects’ consortia to learn new ways to approach their own problems and difficulties, while working together.

UNEXMIN is bringing the raw materials, technology developers and robotics communities together!

UNEXMIN & ¡VAMOS! to organize a joint conference in January 2018

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UNEXMIN, together with another Horizon2020 project – ¡VAMOS! (http://vamos-project.eu/) – will be organizing a joint conference in January 2018. The focus will be on the use of robotics and automation for mineral exploration and extraction. The collaboration between the two EU-funded projects, that are developing innovative technologies, with participants outside both consortia, will certainly give a push in the development of the current technologies, with a fresh look onto the work being developed and future steps. The conference aims to bring together the interested parties, including experts and stakeholders, to establish discussions around the latest advances in the field and develop synergies on innovation in mineral exploration and extraction.

The one-day conference is scheduled to start with an introductory plenary, followed by parallel sessions focused on presentations and further discussions about the projects. In the afternoon, workshops related to technology roadmapping and exploitation are envisaged, being part of UNEXMIN and ¡VAMOS! activities. The conference also intends to serve as a mean to build and strengthen collaboration, network with professionals from the robotics, geology and mining sectors and to share experiences.

All interested people from the fields of geology, mining, robotics, machinery, minerals industry representatives, mining and construction machinery manufacturers, robotics developers and manufacturers and policy and decision makers in the field of mineral exploration and extraction are invited to attend. This conference will be organized by the Geological Survey of Slovenia, partner in both UNEXMIN and ¡VAMOS! projects, in Bled, Slovenia, on the 30th of January 2018. Besides the core conference, it is also possible – and advisable! – to join a one day pre-conference field trip to the Idrija mercury mine – one of the test sites where the UX-1 robot will be tested.

Idrija Mercury Mine (Credit: Arne Hodalič)

Francis’ Shaft (Credit: Matej Peternelj)

For more information, please check the conference flyer. Some relevant data for the registration and important dates are mentioned below.

Registration
Please register via email (manja.zebre[at]geo-zs.si) by 8 January 2018.
Required registration data:
Name and surname,
– Institution,
– Title of the presentation (optional),
– Up to 600-word (one page) abstract with one image (optional),
– Attendance to networking dinner,
– Possible special dietary requirements,
– Attendance to pre-conference field trip to Idrija.
Registration is free-of-charge. Individual invitations letters can be prepared if needed.

Important Dates
Second circular: 30 October 2017
Registration deadline: 8 January 2018
Final conference program: 20 January 2018
Field trip to Idrija: 29 January 2018
Conference: 30 January 2018

UNEXMIN present in EIT Raw Materials Event on Drones, exploration and mining

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The UNEXMIN project will be present during one of the following EIT Raw Materials events, entitled: “Brokerage event and Workshop on Drones, Autonomous Systems for Exploration and Mining“. The event will be held in Espoo, home of the Geological Survey of Finland, during the 14th and 15th of September. It aims to gather researchers, small and large companies and investors in the multidisciplinary of unmanned vehicles.

The topics from this event will work around: (1) Drones, robotics, automation, (2) advanced materials, sensors, energy storage, (3) digital platforms and solutions and (4) safety, regulations and permits. The defined topics will focus on applications in open pit and underground mining and geological mapping, two very important applications for geological purposes.

It is a great pleasure for the UNEXMIN project to be present in this EIT Raw Materials event, as the topics being discussed are the ones the consortium has been working on for quite some time now: drones, autonomy, mapping, exploration and mining. We hope that UNEXMIN can have a positive contribution and impact in the audience and  learn from others’ own experiences. Discussions will surely push the topic of unnamed vehicles used in benefit of mining even further.

A UNEXMIN robot’s prototype

 

Progress Workshop in Porto

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From the 4th of July to the 6th of July, UNEXMIN partners got together for a three-day meeting entitled “Progress Workshop”. As the name indicates, this workshop was a way to control the work being done by every partner in each of the eight work packages, to guarantee that the project is developing in the right way. The meeting was hosted in Porto by INESC TEC at their facilities, which include a robotics development lab.

On the first day of the meeting, there was an overview of the project and a review of the work in each work package. Items included hardware and software developments, preparation for testing the robotic system and communication and dissemination activities. In a multi-disciplinary project like UNEXMIN (robotics, geology, technology development), it is crucial that the different teams share their work with the others. The Advisory Board members – experts in mining and geology – were present during the review of the project and gave their most valuable help to the project partners. Their guidance is very welcome – after all, they have the expertise.

Discussions held during the Progress Workshop

The second day was dedicated to a review meeting of the Work Packages with an evaluator of the European Commission. The evaluator considered the project as running well with everything having been done on time and with good development prospects. After the review, the partners visited INESC TEC robotics labs, where they have a local pool which is used for testing. UPM, who built a UX-1 prototype, tested the robot in the pool, as you can see in the following video.

 

On Thursday, the core discussions for the development of the multi-robotic system were held. These included discussion on Work Package 3 – Autonomy for mine exploration and mapping, Work Package 4 – Multi-robot platform development, and Work Package 6 – Post-processing and data analysis functions. These work packages started recently, so discussions on their structure and content are of high importance.

Post-processing discussion on laser scanner data

There is no time to make mistakes and the consortium is doing their best for the development of the multi-robotic system!