The Electric Mine Consortium (EMC) has launched the ‘Electric Mine Simulation’ challenge to help accelerate progress towards the electrification of mines sites.

Electrification of mine sites is a critical step needed for the mining industry to achieve a zero carbon future. Switching to electric and renewable energy represents a transformational shift that will change the way mines are designed.

EMC in partnership with the OZ Minerals Think & Act Differently ideas incubator and Unearthed launched the eight-week online challenge inviting companies and individuals from around the world to propose an approach to designing an open architecture, mine design simulation platform that can initially be used to compare a fully electric underground mine with its traditional diesel powered equivalent.

Brett Triffett, Transformation Technologist, from OZ Minerals explained, “There is a great opportunity to use whole-of-mine simulations that integrate all of the dependent systems so we can understand the holistic value in transitioning from diesel to electric solutions in underground mines. We would like to be able to quickly build and test different mine designs and compare things like productivity, costs, emissions and energy requirements.

“We think that eventually this capability could be expanded to include the entire mining value chain.”

“We have invited the crowd to propose solutions because we are not currently aware of a platform that meets this brief. What we have learned from running previous crowd challenges is that there are often people from outside our industry who have ideas or technology that can be applied to mining. These people are often unknown to us and in many cases they are unfamiliar with our industry. By participating in a crowd challenge, innovators can access a new market and be supported in developing new products and business models.”