The Mining Innovation Accelerator Network (MICA) has announced more than $11.5 million in funding for 16 projects that will innovate new products and services for the mining industry.
Based in Sudbury, MICA is a national, multidisciplinary group of industry stakeholders working to speed up the commercialization of innovations for the global mining sector. The network is led by the Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI).
Douglas Morrison, the network director for MICA, called the announcement of funding for its first cohort “a major step forward.”
“It establishes MICA as an SME network for innovation in mining across Canada that includes innovators from other sectors, and will soon include solution providers from other countries who want to collaborate with Canadian SMEs,” Morrison said in a Nov. 16 news release.
“We know that these businesses, working in concert, will be able to make significant contributions to the effort to supply the economy with the strategic metals and critical minerals needed to help arrest climate change, and will create high-tech jobs in mining and other sectors, increasing economic activity in Canada and globally.”
Capital for the $30-million fund comes from the federal government’s Strategic Investment Fund.
MICA said it received proposals for 106 projects from 81 MICA members, who requested more than $100 million.
Winning proposals fit into one of four themes: increasing mine production capacity at lower cost; reducing mining energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions; implementing smart, autonomous mining systems; and reducing environmental risk and long-term liabilities.
Funding recipients and their projects include:
- PYTHEAS AI INC: underground positioning system and its application for autonomous, automation and mining safety ($648,883);
- Extract Energy: capture and conversion of mining low-grade waste heat ($1,099,348);
- Mira Geoscience Ltd.: 4D data integration for mining ($476,643);
- Ambra Solution Inc.: intelligent positioning system ($521,544);
- ABC Dust Technologies Corp.: smart customized dust control and soil stabilization solutions pilot plant and industrialization facility ($726,948);
- H2nanO Incorporated: passive sunlight treatment for managing mining process water risks ($315,780);
- waterStrider Treatment Inc.: amprey removal of dissolved metals from mine water ($1,263,861);
- Copperstone Technologies Ltd.: HELIX Saturn: amphibious rover for geotechnical surveying of tailings storage facilities ($1,194,568);
- Cheetah Networks Inc.: visualization of network analytics in a mine ($456,914);
- NTWIST Inc.: smart comminution in mineral processing ($487,123);
- Destiny Copper Inc.: destiny code green ($835,579);
- Rithmik Solutions Ltd.: equipment doctor ($577,834);
- EnviroMetal Technologies Inc.: gold recovery circuit pilot ($1,743,000);
- Goldspot Discoveries Corp.: machine vision for geological knowledge extraction ($862,670.04);
- Centre for Innovation in Mineral Resource Engineering: multimodal sensing system for improved productivity and safety in cave mines ($108,158);
- Linnovative Solutions: Linnovative Solutions ($279,940)
Winners were announced during MICA’s inaugural conference, being held Nov. 14-16 in Toronto.
The second call for proposals for funding has been issued and submissions are now being accepted.
