Robotic Mining is Just Around the Corner - AI is Coming

Mining & Minerals - Evaluations / Gold-Silver Exploration & Mining Projects

The European ROBOMINERS program will develop a bio-inspired, modular and reconfigurable robot-miner for small and difficult to access deposits. The aim is to create a prototype robot that is capable of mining underground, underwater or above water, and can be delivered in modules to the deposit via a large diameter borehole. In the envisioned ROBOMINERS technology line, mining will take place underground, underwater in a flooded environment.

Within the project duration, the consortium aims more particularly at:

• Constructing a fully functional modular robot miner prototype following a bio-inspired design, capable of operating, navigating and performing selective mining in a flooded underground environment;
• Designing a mining ecosystem of expected future upstream/downstream raw materials processes via simulations, modelling and virtual prototyping;
• Validating all key functions of the robot-miner to a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4;
• Using the prototypes to study and advance future research challenges concerning scalability, resilience, re-configurability, self-repair, collective behaviour, operation in harsh environments, selective mining, production methods as well as for the necessary converging technologies on an overall mining ecosystem level.

European Countries involved to date:

Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (coordinator), Spain
Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Montanuniversitat Leoben, Austria
Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Belgium
Associacao Portuguesa dos Industriais de Marmores e Ramos Afins, Portugal
La Palma Research Centre SL, Spain
University of Miskolc, Faculty of Earth Science Engineering Hungary
Federation Europeenne des Geologues, Belgium
Geoloski Zavod Slovenije, Slovenia
Resources Computing International Ltd, United Kingdom
Geo-Montan Geologus Ltd, Hungary
Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Polska Academia Nauk Instytut Gospodarki Surowcami Mineralnymi i Energia, Poland
K-UTEC AG, Germany

In the U.S. and Canada, we conclude that the first projects going to AI and robotic mining will be to develop the very-high grade and likely underground uranium mines that will be coming on-stream in the foreseeable future in and around the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada (more).