Called Nexgen Sustainable Intelligent Mining Systems, the three-year project is designed to support technologies, methods and processes that will enable a more sustainable and efficient carbon-neutral mining operation.
It will also focus on "the modern miner" with the safety of that miner of the future a key tenet. For example, the project will look at developing autonomous mine inspection technology.
The project is coordinated by Epiroc and besides OZ Minerals, the other partners include Boliden, Agnico Eagle Finland, KGHM Polska, K+S, Ericcson, Mobilaris MCE, AFRY, KGHM Cuprum, Leleas University of Technology and RWTH Aachen University.
OZ Minerals is the only company in the project not based in Europe.
Nexgen SIMS builds on the EU-sponsored H2020 SIMS project, also coordinated by Epiroc, which ran between 2017 and 2020. That project played an important role in advancing sustainable mining operations through, in part, the use of battery-electric machines.
A key part of Nexgen SIMS is developing autonomous carbon-neutral mining processes, which includes the use of battery-electric mining equipment; full utilisation of 5G for optimal connectivity and positioning; autonomous material handling; artificial intelligence-powered traffic and fleet control; and collaboration between machines.
Epiroc president and CEO Helena Hedblom said Epiroc was proud to be leading the project that would help advance autonomous carbon-neutral mining.
"Collaboration and partnership among stakeholders that have different areas of expertise is extremely important to successfully advance complex digital and automated systems that will improving the mining industry's environmental impact, work environment and productivity," she said.
OZ Minerals CEO Andrew Cole said Nexgen SIMS was one of the ways miner was moving towards its aspiration to work with the best talent and capability no matter where it resided to drive an outcome-based organisation.
Epiroc machines that will be part of the project include the Scooptram ST14 battery loader and the Minetruck MT42 battery hauler.
