Water at the heart of the 2023 Open Innovation Challenge

For its 5^th edition, the Open Innovation Challenge organized by Eramet Ideas and EIT RawMaterials invites candidate companies to propose a solution to better manage water resources in Eramet’s mining and metals activities. The initiative is also supported by Austmine, the leading industry association for the Australian Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS) sector.

Monitoring, optimization and reduction of fresh water consumption, resource modeling, recycling… the issues are numerous and the solutions welcome. In fact, Eramet has made water conservation one of the objectives of its CSR roadmap and will very soon make it a major priority in its new roadmap.

Ten finalists will be selected and an online “speed dating” will be organized with the members of the jury, composed of experts from the various Eramet entities around the world.

In January 2024, the final of the Challenge will take place in Paris, where three winners will be awarded during the Eramet Ideas innovation seminar.

The Open Innovation Challenge, a source of long-term collaborations

The ultimate goal of the challenge is to create lasting partnerships between Eramet and start-ups. This is why the winners receive funding to test their solutions on the Group’s sites and confront them with the reality of the field.

This year’s winner, Unusuals’ solution, is based on the use of artificial intelligence and data processing to automate maintenance of assets and detect any anomalies. “Our solution collects visual data to analyze it with our AI, providing our customers with useful and actionable information about their assets, such as defects or maintenance parameters”, says co-founder Mario Fernandez Marin. “The Challenge was excellent and we much enjoyed being part of it. In addition, the contact with a customer and user of our solution provided us with valuable feedback to improve our AI and product.”

A mission will be organized this month to test the solution at Setrag, a subsidiary of Comilog, which operates Gabon’s only railroad to transport ore, goods and passengers. “We will meet the technical experts in person and install a new set of cameras to assess new potential use cases,” explains Marin. “We expect to gather more information about the specific defects and safety issues affecting Setrag’s railway infrastructures, in order to customize our AI to add the most value for Setrag and Eramet.”

And the winners of previous editions are not to be outdone!

In January 2022, it was Bind-X that was rewarded as part of the “Responsible mining” edition of the Challenge. Bind-X offers an innovative product portfolio to control dust emissions on Eramet’s mining sites. By replacing water, what is currently being used, Bind-X can save several million liters of this precious resource per year. Other applications include tailings management, slurry stabilization and granulation.

Between November 2022 and March 2023, Bind-X demonstrated its solution at the Grande Côte Operations (GCO) site in Senegal, on a road through which mineralized sand from the mine is transported to the separation plant. “We sent 40,000 kg of our dust control product ‘Bind-DC19’ to Senegal,” explains Martin Spitznagel, CEO of Bind-X. “It was applied on 30,000m² of primary haul roads with onsite support from a Bind-X team of 2 engineers. We have proven efficient soil stabilization and dust prevention capabilities over a length of 3 kilometers and a duration of more than 3 months.”

Significant progress was achieved, with a threefold reduction in dust fallout in the months following the treatment compared to the period before application. Bind-X’s solution also generated many other benefits regarding water consumption (reduced by over 85%, the equivalent of more than 20 million litres, during the three-month trial period on the road section) and diesel consumption (reduced by more than 60,000 litres). CO₂ emissions linked directly to current dust control procedures were also reduced by 94%.

“Future tests on other Eramet sites, including New Caledonia and Gabon, have already been proposed by the Group,” concludes Spitznagel. “For Bind-X, this collaboration was a unique opportunity to get direct insights into the challenges of GCO’s operations, especially how to further optimize operations while coexisting with communities and the CSR goals of the company. We now envision a long-term supply contract with both Eramet and GCO, further expanding an already-established relationship.”