Digitalization of Process and Environmental impact in Mining and Quarrying Industry, Implementation, Challenges and Guidelines from 9 Pilot Sites in Europe

Other conference contribution, 2025

The mining and quarrying industry is the backbone of today’s society with their roles in extraction of minerals and aggregates, enabling the lifestyle of today’s world. To increase the efficiency and understanding of these processes, digitalisation serves as a powerful tool due to the low level of adaptation of digital tools in these processes. As these industries are taking their steps into the future, digitalisation can assist to navigate the landscape as it continues to change, both physically and legislatively.

Two projects dealing with digitalisation in these sectors are DigiEcoQuarry(DEQ) and Rotate(R8), both funded by the Horizon Europe fund. The projects are connected to pilot sites, where hardware is installed and connected to the larger digital framework used within the project. DEQ aims to introduce digitalisation into the quarrying sector by using a system; Innovative Quarrying System (IQS). The IQS consolidates several data streams from the pilot site into one usable tool, providing an oversight in consumption, production, environmental impact etc. for the site, enabling decisions to be made at several levels with better understanding of site-specific requirements and challenges.

Rotate focuses on how the efficiency and recovery rate of critical raw materials, raw materials and water can be improved, while also reducing pollution in the form of CO2 and noise. This is done via a platform from which process can be monitored, process simulations can be performed to further optimise the process at a quarry, mine or processing plant.

The development of the platforms, together with the implementation of different expert systems, was a source of numerous challenges, such as interoperability and communication protocols, different formatting, languages, level of automation, engagement of stakeholders and more. Leading to iterative development to reach the overall goal of developing digital platforms for mining and quarrying. All this has provided valuable insights into future developments.