The OPTIMINER Project, coordinated by I-SENSE Group of ICCS, officially launched on January 29-30, 2025, with a kickoff meeting in Athens! 19 partners from across Europe gathered to lay the foundation and roadmap for cutting-edge research in sustainable mining.
Europe’s mining industry faces a major challenge: efficiently and sustainably recovering critical raw materials (CRMs) from complex, low-grade ores. OPTIMINER tackles this with AI-driven solutions across five key areas:
- REMINER – Advanced CRM recovery technologies, including smart ore sorting, bioleaching, and phytomining, powered by an AI-driven CRM Recovery Selector.
- DIGIMINER – A digital platform for smart monitoring & control, featuring a Decision Support System, Virtual Miner assistant, and Digital Twins.
- ECOMINER – Tools to optimize energy, water use, and waste valorization, ensuring sustainability & resilience.
- DEMOMINER – Real-world pilots in Spain, Greece, Poland, Finland, and Chile, focusing on CRMs such as magnesium, tungsten, rare earth elements (Neodymium), copper, cobalt, and coking coal.
- GLOBEMINER – Strengthening global cooperation, especially EU-Chile partnerships, to foster market uptake.
The OPTIMINER consortium, comprises partners from 7 EU countries (Greece, Spain, Germany, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Finland), and 1 non- EU country (Chile).The OPTIMINER consortium comprises diverse research organizations, companies, SMEs, universities, and industries, ensuring balanced roles and activities, within the project’s lifecycle. Particularly, universities such as UNIVERSITAET FUER BODENKULTUR WIEN (BOKU) and research organizations such as Institute of communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), CORE Innovation Center, INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DE ARAGON (ITA), GLOWNY INSTYTUT GORNICTWA – PANSTWOWY INSTYTUT BADAWCZY (GIG), SIEC BADAWCZA LUKASIEWICZ – INSTYTUT METALI NIEZELAZNYCH (IMN), FUNDACION FRAUNHOFER CHILE RESEARCH (CSET). Also, it includes SMEs and companies, such as COGNISENSUS, LIBRA AI TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE, ECOCASTULUM SL (ECO), EUROCORE CONSULTING, AHK BUSINESS CENTER SA, DIGITALTWIN TECHNOLOGY GMBH, IBERIAN SUSTAINABLE MINING CLUSTER (ISMC) and industrial partners such as TERNA LEFKOLITHOI, LEONORE DEVELOPMENT SL, SALORO SL, JASTRZEBSKA, JASTRZEBSKA SPOLKA WEGLOWA SA (JSW) and TAPOJARVI OY (TAPO).
Our team was represented by Dr. Angelos Amditis, Georgios Tsimiklis, Fotios Konstantinidis, Christina Stefani, Marilena Xarcha, Georgios Chantoumakos, Nikoletta Karitsioti, Nasia Balakera, Savvas Sifnaios and Vangelis Stergiou.
