Introductions

NickAzer

Please introduce yourself to the rest of the community here. Tell us a bit about yourself, your projects and your relation to XPRIZE.

NickAzer

I'm Nick Azer, your online community manager. I live in Portland, Oregon in the US. My background is in social media and blogging; for the last 6 years, I have been the social media manager and content curator on the Google Lunar XPRIZE.

If you have any community-related questions or need help, feel free to send me a message here anytime, or you can email me at nick.azer@xprize.org!

DavidPoli

Greetings everyone! My name is David Poli and I'm part of the Zero-Waste Mining Prize Design research team. I joined XPRIZE earlier this year after completing my MBA at UCLA with a certificate in sustainability leadership. While my background is in engineering, I'm completely new to the field of mining, so I'm looking forward to learning and engaging with this community as we design an impactful XPRIZE competition!

CharlesNyabeze

Hello everyone, the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI) connects buyers of innovation with builders of innovation. CEMI is well connected with the entire global mining innovation ecosystem. We do this by accelerating the adoption of validated and vetted challenges and solutions. We are excited to participate in the XPRIZE as we have encountered many interesting ideas that we know need to work together to drive towards Zero-Waste Mining. We like to view the so called waste as inventory ready for alternative use. There is no such thing as waste. Let’s drive towards Zero wastage of these mineral and chemical inventories. My role at CEMI includes building world class partnerships, leveraging government resources with private sector investments, identifying current and emerging solution providers, connecting the unconnected entities, leveraging local ecosystems, preparing major funding applications and other business development and commercialization activities. I am passionate about mining because I believe that mining builds communities. #ilovemining i❤️mining Follow me on twitter via @CharlesNyabeze https://twitter.com/charlesnyabeze

jonellermann

Hi everyone. My name is Jonathan Ellermann. I work for a company called RCS Global, where I largely focus on the responsible trade of minerals from Central Africa. I manage the Rwanda team, where we validate responsibly sourced tin, tantalum, and tungsten exports (3ts). I am also the Project Manager for the IBM/RCS Global Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network, which is focused on responsible cobalt production from the DRC for the auto sector. I previously worked as a leader of the Mining Initiative for Tetra Tech International Development. Look forward to exploring the Xprize zero-waste mining community, and advancing this exciting and important initiative. jonathan@rcsglobal.com

DanSelz

Hi all, I'm Dan Selz, I work at XPRIZE as a Project Manager on the Impact & Design Team and am excited to be part of the team spearheading the design of this prize! I've been at XPRIZE here in Los Angeles for about two years now , after receiving an MBA from USC and love the work I get to do here. Please feel free to reach out and let me know how I can help.

SuzanneKelly

Hi all, I am working on the XPRIZE Prize Design for Zero-Waste Mining. I am looking forward to hearing your input on the challenges to a truly sustainable Zero-Waste Mining approach. Please reach out with any insights or feedback you have about industry innovations and how we can design and create a Zero-Waste Mining industry together!

RPSINGH

Hello all! My bio-data is as follows Engr. Ram Pratap Singh is serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology ( Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India for last 25 years. After obtaining his B.Tech.(Mining Engg.) and M.Tech.(Mining Engg.) in year 1988 and 1990, respectively from IIT(BHU), he joined as a Scientist in Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research. After serving there for 3.5 years he return back as a Lecturer in the Dept. of Mining Engg., IIT(BHU) in the year 1993. Being a brilliant scholar throughout his career he received various scholarships from 9th standard onward throughout to M.Tech. standard. He is a recipient of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Gold Medal from Institution of Engineers(India) for one of his technical paper. He is a recipient of 'शिक्षा-रत्न पुरस्कार' (Jewel of Education Prize) also. Besides, his chosen field of endurance, he has a keen interest in religion, philosophy, history, health education and literature.

declan

Hi all. I'm Declan Vogt, a lecturer in robotics and automation at the Camborne School of Mines in the UK.

Mining is dull, dirty and dangerous - the classic combination for automation. It also has rough terrain that changes daily and underground there is no GPS and no mobile network - a challenging environment to automate.

Zero-waste mining has to be the goal for all mining companies, particularly in light of the environmental impact of mining and the continuing stream of tailings dam failures around the world. There's going to have to be some automation. I'm in.

NickAzer

@declan @RPSINGH Welcome, it's great to have you in the community! We're excited to take on these challenges. Our first question for discussion can be found here; any input or feedback you could have there would be awesome!

Simit

Hi everyone, it is beautiful Friday morning in Sydney and I just received the invite to join this forum (thanks to Nick Azer). I am Dr Simit Raval - a Senior Lecturer and the leader of Laboratory for Imaging of the Mining Environment (LIME) at University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney Australia.

I am a Mining Engineer with more than 25 years of combined experience in Mining Industry and academia. I am specialised in the integration of sensing technologies to drive applied innovation in mining. I lead a group of researchers focused on utilising data from sensors mounted on various platforms, from satellite through to UAVs/drones, to visualise, identify and monitor the environmental footprints of mining activities.

I have received more than $1.1 million as competitive research grants and supervised PhD research projects involving drone-based smart sensing, underground mobile scanning, mine rehabilitation/closure, climate change and asteroid/off-earth mining.

I look forward to interacting more on this important Zero-Waste Mining discussion that is increasingly shaping the social licence to operate for the industry.

Cheers (simit@unsw.edu.au)

SuzanneKelly

@CharlesNyabeze @jonellermann Thanks for joining our community! Our first question for discussion is about mining waste and can be found here; as seasoned industry professionals we value your commentary.

DavidPoli

@simit Welcome and thank you for contributing to the community! We're excited to hear more about your sensing technologies and their impact on the mining industry.

jortiz

Hello, my name is Julian Ortiz. I work at Queen's University as an Associate Professor in Mining Engineering (and cross appointed in Geological Engineering). My main interest is in predictive geometallurgical modelling, that is integrated modeling of operations in the mining value chain. As part of this approach I work in collaboration with geologists, mine planners, mineral processors and metallurgists (among others), looking at optimizing the entire mining cycle, in particular to minimize cost, environmental footprint, and water and energy consumption. We use predictive modelling (deep learning), geostatistics and stochastic simulation to predict expected values and variability in response variables, and also to account for uncertain inputs.
I am very interested in collaborating with researchers and with industry in solving problems linked to sustainability of the minerals industry.

NickAzer

Welcome @jortiz! Your expertise and approach sounds awesome. We've posted a new topic for discussion here - any input you might have there would be great!

akb

Hello everyone

I'm Adam Bostock and I have a keen interest in science, technology, innovation, the environment and visions for the future.

I'm a fan of XPRIZEs and have participated in the design of a few (energy and forests, so far).

Moussa

I’m Moussa Charlot, Coordinating a Development Minerals Programme in Cameroon. Basically, clay, dimension stones, sand, pozzolan, and gemstones.

I’m interested to learn more from others but also share my experience on the impacts of the main activities during closure and rehabilitation of extraction sites, but also good practices currently employed to mitigate impacts.

I want to know more about XPRIZEs.

Cheers

NickAzer

It's great to have you here, @Moussa! We're really interested in your work and the UNDP programme. You can find our latest discussions here - and if you know anyone else at your organizations that would be interested in joining, feel free to forward them this link!: https://community.xprize.org/zero-waste-mining/

DavidPoli

@akb Great to have you in the community, and we're very excited to have your continuing participation with XPRIZE!

BryanNamba

Hi Everyone! I'm Bryan Namba and I am working on the Zero-Waste Mining Prize Design. I recently started with XPRIZE and I'm looking forward to being a part of this community and working with all of you moving forward. Please reach out with any thoughts, ideas, or questions!

akb

The links to comments (the # ref that jumps to the relevant part of the page) isn't quite right - it's too low down on the page.

SimonJowitt

Hi, I'm Simon Jowitt, and I'm an Assistant Professor in Economic Geology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (you can also find me on twitter here). I've done a lot of work on global metal resources, mineral economics, critical metals and the potential resources represented by and located within mining waste. This is in addition to more traditional economic geology research looking at the processes that form mineral deposits and how we can use knowledge of these processes to find new mineral deposits. Good to meet you all, and thanks for the invite @NickAzer.

Cheers

Simon

RPSINGH

Dear Sir/Madam,

Kindly, find the link of my book as follows for your perusal:
http://self.gutenberg.org/eBooks/WPLBN0100301775-Environmental-Scenario-in-Indian-Mining-Industry--An-Overview-by-Ram-Pratap-Singh-et-al-.aspx?

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully,

R.P. Singh
Associate Professor, Dept. of Mining Engg., IIT(BHU), Varanasi

NickAzer

Thank you @SimonJowitt and @RPSINGH! We have a few new discussions in Key Issues we'd love any ideas, links, examples you might have for these threads: https://community.xprize.org/zero-waste-mining/categories/mining-key-issues And thank you @akb for your thoughts on in-situ extraction and waste!

cedwards

Hi everyone. I'm Cliff Edwards, Chief Innovation Officer of Envisioning Labs, an innovation consultancy in Vancouver, BC. We recently put our minds to the inefficient comminution process in mining and the mine tailings waste issue, and gained some industry and government recognition for the two innovation concepts we have put forward so far. We were a semi-finalist in GoldCorp's 2019 DisruptMining innovation competition that recepty completed in Toronto for the tailings innovation we proposed, and won another innovation award on this idea from a large iron mining and steel making company based in Europe. We are also about to embark on an R&D project for the Canadian government on reducing the energy of rock comminution (crushing and grinding).

I think the ideas we have put forward so far have a number of common elements with the goals of the zero-waste mining XPrize goals, and I will add some comments on this to the forum sections. We would love to take on more mining innovation given the large environmental and social impacts that can come from making improvements in this sector, and look forward to participating in this community and helping achieve zero-waste mining.

jofuenza

Hi everyone! I´m José Ignacio, Head of Office of Clean Energy for the Andean Countries (Chile, Argentina, Perú and Brazil) for the multinational engineering and construction Scottish firm Wood Plc. We have an extensive track record of more than 200 GW of advisory, engineering and construction for renewable projects (solar, wind, storage and tidal). Our company, as well, work very close with the mining and environmental industry (doing pre-feed, feed and EPC projects for a range of minerals), we have recently develop a cost optimization tool for renewable power integration into mining processes, which can be further extended to create a zero waste and emissions free mining industry. Our goal is to create a fully autonomous, a hundred percent renewable powered and zero waste mining industry.
I´m based in Santiago, Chile and our team here will be looking forward to this community so we can further create green value and reach the above mentioned goals.

DavidPoli

@jofuenza Thanks for joining our community! The work you do sounds fascinating, and so important. Our team was just in Santiago as well for the CESCO conference, and there was a lot of exciting collaboration on our prize design. Hopefully we'll be able to post some news soon!

Jorgevargas

Hello everyone. I am Jorge Vargas, and I am pretty excited about collaborating in this community. I am currently working at Sernageomin a regulatory organization at the chilean mining activity. I am a mechanical engineer and I hold a master of science degree from the Colorado School of Mines. I have extensive experience in managing Mining and Oil and Gas Engineering Projects in different places of the world and optimizing processes through six sigma methodology. Modelling and optimizing processes are my areas of interest so I will be glad of collaborating with my skills in the challenge of implementing the visión of zero waste mining.

NickAzer

Thank you @Jorgevargas @jofuenza and @cedwards - it's great having you here! We have a new discussion this week - on the barriers to innovation - that also might be of interest!

ndmanser

Hello all, my name is Nathan Manser, I am a lecturer of mining and geological engineering at Michigan Technological University. I am currently teaching courses and conducting research related to the sustainable future of mining at the intersection of automation and artificial intelligence. I have ten years of experience as a mining systems engineer within the industrial minerals and aggregates industry in the United States.

DavidPoli

@ndmanser Prof. Manser, great to have you in the community! I think your knowledge of sustainable mining technology is going to be very valuable as we refine our prize direction and determine our technical parameters for the competition. We're looking forward to your input!