PROJECT INNOVAMINA

Summary:

InnovaMina (Digital Innovations in Mining) is a European research and innovation project funded by EIT Raw Materials (a European Union body) with a budget of approximately 3 million euros. The project brings together a consortium of six partners from industry and academia across Europe (coordinated by Worldsensing).

The project aims to transform monitoring in the mining industry, shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach through the integration of smart optical sensors, predictive data analytics, and artificial intelligence.

The technologies developed are validated under real-world conditions at mining sites to monitor structural stability on slopes and in waste rock dumps or tailings storage facilities, with the goal of predicting failures before they occur. To this end, the project is deploying three complementary products:

1. P1 — IoT Sensing (IoT-based Diffractometry): Continuous, real-time detection of structural movements using distributed optical sensors.
2. P2 — AI Analytics (Anomaly Detection Module): Machine learning analytics to identify anomalous conditions in the infrastructure and ensure the integrity of the sensor network.
3. P3 — Fiber-Optic (Fiber-Optic Shear Wave Mapping): Early warning system to detect subsurface anomalies through shear wave velocity mapping.

General objective:

The overall objective of InnovaMina is to develop, integrate, and validate advanced, non-invasive digital monitoring technologies and methodologies to enhance safety, operational efficiency, and sustainability in the mining sector.

Aragon Photonics’ specific objective within the InnovaMina project is to develop, integrate, and validate DAS technology for continuous digital monitoring in tailings piles and mines to improve safety, operational efficiency, and sustainability in the mining sector.