The mining sector, historically viewed as a largely manual and somewhat outdated industry, has started to incorporate modern technologies like artificial intelligence, digital twins, Big Data, blockchain, and cloud-based data processing. These technologies improve efficiency and safety in mining, reduce costs, and mitigate the environmental impact of mining operations. The Polish copper giant KGHM and units of the Łukasiewicz Research Network are currently working on a project aimed at coordinating and optimizing digitalization processes across the mining sector. This effort is part of the international initiative Mine.io, which involves partners from 11 European countries and aims to transform approaches to resource extraction and processing.
The mining sector, which accounts for several percent of Poland’s GDP and employs about 80,000 people, is one of the strategic sectors of the Polish economy. Like all other sectors, it is subject to regulations related to green transformation and ecology.
“The mining industry has mainly been associated with analog applications so far, but digitalization trends have recently gained momentum in this industry, utilizing elements associated with the Internet of Things and big data processing. All of this makes mining more environmentally friendly”, says Marek Kościelski from the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Tele- and Radio Engineering.
The applied technologies align with the concept of mining 4.0. This trend introduces terms such as digitization, automation, and intelligent mining to the Polish mining industry.
“Mining 4.0 is a new qualitative approach to the entire mining sector, based on the application of new technologies currently being developed. This includes Internet of Things technologies, artificial intelligence, which has potential to optimize processes and industry management, and mobile technologies which can make mines safer and equipment more efficient under computer systems supervision. This transition to processing large amounts of data, using cloud-based systems, leads to increased digitalization of mines, and this is what we call mining 4.0,” explains Dr. Jacek Galas from the Łukasiewicz Research Network.
The goal of mining 4.0 is to ensure the industry’s profitable and efficient operation in the long run. Digitization and the application of new technologies improve efficiency, cut costs, and enhance work safety in mines. It enables precise monitoring and optimization of extraction processes along the entire service chain, reducing the negative environmental impact of the extractive industry.
“General mining has quite a significant impact on the environment; technologies developed as part of Mine.io aim to eliminate this negative impact,” says Marek Kościelski, adding that the pilot projects of Mine.io pertain to many stages with one of them being developing a common architecture to assist future mines.
The international Mine.io project, funded by the “European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program”, aims to develop a new Comprehensive Digitized Ecosystem of Mining Industry 4.0. This is a comprehensive approach to the mining industry intended not only to implement new technologies across the entire supply chain related to the mining industry, but also to completely change how we think and approach extraction and processing of resources.
“The Mine.io project focuses on the entire mining industry, which consists of three basic segments: mines, mineral raw material processing plants, and metallurgy. So far, these elements of the system have worked separately. There was a connection between them, for example, within one corporation, but a broader view was missing that everything should be somehow coordinated. The Mine.io project is designed for this coordination and aims to digitize resources that are currently dispersed across many industrial plants,” explains Dr. Jacek Galas.
The Mine.io project is a joint initiative of a consortium of 25 partners, both industrial and scientific, from 11 countries: Poland, Italy, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, Hungary, and Norway. Each partner brings its unique competences and technologies to the project. This extensive international collaboration is intended to demonstrate that solving global environmental and energy problems requires broad engagement. Poland in the Mine.io project is represented by: the Institute of Tele- and Radio Engineering and the Institute of Innovative Technologies EMAG, belonging to the Łukasiewicz Research Network, the Krakow University of Science and Technology, and Polish copper giant KGHM, the recipient of the technologies.
“Our institute is in a particular situation because our work is geared towards applications at KGHM. It is a very large entity of global significance, so any innovation that we develop and implement in KGHM can later be transferred to other entities managed by this company,” says an expert from the Łukasiewicz Research Network.
As part of the project under Polish leadership, KGHM will provide a copper flotation line where the metal is separated from the ore using mechanical and chemical processes and accumulates in so-called flotation foam. Meanwhile, other units will develop a measurement system – using artificial intelligence technology – which will enable continuous monitoring of metal content in flotation foam and control and optimization of copper ore flotation processes based on algorithms. The result of the project, developed by Polish entities, is to be a technology that can be implemented in KGHM, leading to the optimization of flotation technology in the company’s plants.
“Artificial intelligence leads to the optimization of technological processes. With such a large amount of material that is being processed in mineral raw material processing plants, any change leads to very significant financial savings. If we optimize this technology, we will, first of all, optimize the processing time and the amount of energy needed for these processes, which will also achieve much better economic results. This is the direction in which our institute is working, among others,” explains Dr. Jacek Galas.
Among other technologies to be tested and implemented as part of the international project are imaging and monitoring of mining resources using cosmic radiation (muons), drone technologies, and sensors integrated with underwater drones for monitoring flooded excavations and extraction processes.
“There is also a second technology, also drone-based, which will be used to monitor various mine landfills, embankments, where waste is stored. The idea is to diagnose the state of waste, whether there is a problem with certain hazardous compounds leaking into the external environment. This will mainly be done with various types of electrostatic, electromagnetic, and magnetic sensors. Then the waste will be monitored via blockchain technology, which has been introduced by our colleagues from Spain, and this technology is used to get a better grasp of what is happening with these wastes,” explains an expert from the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Tele- and Radio Engineering.
Specialists are also working on implementing underwater mobility and vehicle electrification technology utilizing wireless technology.
“Currently, mine machinery operates on the basis of diesel or petrol engines, which is very inconvenient because large ventilation systems are needed. There is a proposal to ensure that all machines will be wirelessly powered and that these will be largely automatic systems that can be controlled from the surface, not directly by people who are underground,” explains Dr. Jacek Galas. “Wireless mobility technology serves to make mines more ecological and more people-friendly so that people do not have to stay underground in fumes or exhaust gases, which machines produce because ventilation systems are not fully optimized.”
“In the Mine.io project, we intend to carry out a multi-stage digitalization of mining. One of them will be the implementation of these technologies as part of pilots located in seven locations – from Portugal and Poland, through Finland, Germany, and Greece. Some of them are active mines, such as KGHM, some are closed, others are only accessible for research purposes. There we will demonstrate our technologies and their analysis,” adds Marek Kościelski. “Since we are in the first year of our activity, we currently have the architecture of the process developed. The outcomes of the Mine.io project will be both strictly technological stages and socio-economic ones, analyzing the impact of working mines on the environment and people who work and live near them.”
