During the fourth and last day of the Smart Tech Place – the Program on Open Innovation in Mining, Expande belonging to Fundación Chile, presented volume 3 of “Cases of Innovation among Suppliers to the Chilean Mining Industry” that seeks to spread local technological achievements that contribute toward more sophisticated goods and services with a potential for export.
With the launch of its third volume of the book entitled “Cases of innovation in the Chilean Mining Industry” of the Program for Open Innovation in Mining, Expande, Smart Tech Place closed down its activities during the 15th version of Expomin. For four days, Fundación Chile, with its platforms of open innovation in mining, Expande, Tranque, Interop and Eleva developed a large agenda of activities, focusing discussions on the challenges faced by the country in mining, with the conviction that mining is right-minded when led by innovation in Chile.
The third edition of the book “Cases of Innovation among Suppliers to the Chilean Mining Industry” which had the support of the Interamerican Development Bank through the Multilateral Investment Fund (BID – FOMIN), highlighted the work of five suppliers (Timining, Axys, Sax, Indimin and Aplik) which developed technological solutions in accordance with the needs and challenges of the mining industry.
The publication was launched in the presence of Marcos Kulka, General Manager of Fundación Chile; Conrad von Igel, Director of the Centro de Innovación UC of Anacleto Angelini and Jonathan Castillo, Manager of the National High Grade Mining Program.
For Marcos Kulka, the General Manager of Fundación Chile, “the book reflects this moment in time. It provides an account of the only way of relying less on copper in the future will be by means of copper mining itself. Being able to test this strategic field, this type of technology will enable the majority of challenges faced by the mining industry to be exceeded in terms of water, energy, human capital and the sustainability of the ecosystem”.
“Copper mining is a sector that is going to lever a great amount of knowhow toward other industries. Nowadays, companies have placed challenges on a level with the ecosystem so that entrepreneurs, with their talents and technological development are able to create competitiveness within the industry”, Kulka stressed.
Along these same lines, the Manager for the National High Grade Mining Program, Jonathan Castillo, stated: ”from High Grade we are congratulating all of the entrepreneurs with whom we have been in contact. Expande is a part of our backbone whose aim it is to generate 250 world class suppliers by 2035 and reach US$ 4,000 million in exports of goods and services related to mining. In order to create this critical mass of entrepreneurs and startups it is vital reaching that target”.
“The idea behind it is to effectively improve productivity in mining. The challenges faced by mining are on a large scale and they require – in the majority of cases – integrating technology and disruptive innovation that helps maintain production”, Castillo added.
The third edition of the R+D+i Corporate Laboratory of the Centro de Innovación UC of Anacleto Angelini has once again significantly contributed, together with Expande, in its development as a result of their expertise and capacity to generate a fruitful interaction between higher education and the public-private sector.
Conrad von Igel, Director of the Centro de Innovación UC of Anacleto Angelini stressed that “we are sharing a spirit of ‘Inspiring, connecting and orchestrating innovation with all of the parties involved in this book, reflecting the interaction we are seeking between the mining industry and the academic world and the public. We deeply believe in a work involving association and shared disciplines, aimed at driving science and technology that ensures the competitiveness of the sector and creates cases that foster a culture of innovation”.
The companies
Timining created Aris, a digital platform that enables the geo-technical area of a mining operation to download periodic and automated information of everything that is happening in the works from a point of view of the physical and mechanical behavior of its infrastructure.
Axys S.A. designed the Integrated Monitoring and Control System of Shovels and Loading Fronts, a solution that enables decisions and all kinds of operations that are going on in a mine to be evaluated in real time.
SAX created an online analysis system of mineralogy, transforming a diffractometer of X-rays used for mineralogically analyzing samples of powder in the laboratory in an instrument that can do this in a few minutes, in a mining operation, of pulp or matter in its liquid state.
Indimin designed the Smart Mining Coach, a personal and digital trainer that orients the right way in which to handle mobile mining equipment and thus increase operational productivity.
Aplik invented a monitoring system and irrigation measurement of heap leaching; a remote and non-invasive automatic inspection system that is able to monitor the surface of leach heaps and determine, in real time and automatically, the quality and distribution of irrigated areas, detect any pools and dry zones, channeling, low pressure zones whilst irrigating; filtrations, pipes burst, sprinklers coming loose or failures in drip systems.
