When the Swedish Mining Innovation Award was presented earlier this week, the jury announced that they had chosen to highlight an innovation that stands out a little extra for the collaboration it is based on with a special inspiration prize. The Inspiration Prize 2020 was awarded to the VR mine developed by the Swedish consortium within the SIMS project.
– Of all the fantastic nominations, one stood out and was a little different from the others. It shows on the collaboration which the Swedish mining innovation system is so successfully built upon, and also targets our most important target group – children, young people and the general public, said Jenny Greberg, program director of Swedish Mining Innovation and chair of the jury.
The virtual mining environment is developed and based on game technology and with a focus on visualization. It shows world-leading sustainable intelligent mining in a way that creates interest even outside the mining industry. The VR mine is available to the public and reaches a large number of children and young people through the installations at the Technical Museum in Stockholm and Teknikens hus in Luleå. Another handful of Swedish Science Centers are now in the starting blocks to start using these VR environments in their exhibitions.
The Swedish consortium within the project SIMS – Sustainable Intelligent Mining Systems consists of; ABB, Boliden, Epiroc, Ericsson, IGW, LKAB, LTU Business, Luleå University of Technology, Mobilaris and Wolfit. Arash Källmark, Lecturer Visual Design at LTU was the recipient the prize at Svemin’s autumn meeting.
– We want to thank Swedish Mining Innovation for paying attention to our work and are very happy about this award! It has been very rewarding to develop the VR mine together with other partners in the SIMS project, and we are really looking forward to being able to continue to develop the virtual mine in a possible NEXGEN SIMS project, said Arash.
The prize awarded by the national strategic innovation program Swedish Mining Innovation draws attention to innovations related to mining and metal extraction. The jury consisted of chairman Jenny Greberg, program director Swedish Mining Innovation, Lennart Evrell, board member SCA, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, ICA and Epiroc, Maria Sunér Flemming, CEO Svemin and Margareta Groth, unit manager Industrial Development, Vinnova.
Motivation
The VR mine is a fine example of a collaboration between industry and academia on which the Swedish mining innovation system is based. It visualizes sustainable intelligent mining in an interesting and realistic way, and creates interest and makes knowledge of modern mining available to an important target group; children, young people and the general public.
Hear Arash Källmark, LTU and Jan Gustafsson, Epiroc about the virtual mine.
Read more
Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2020
See the award ceremony (in Swedish)
(2:32.01 into the broadcast).
