On June 2 & 3, 2021, took place DIGIECOQUARRY’s Kick-off Meeting. This new European project, named ‘INNOVATIVE DIGITAL SUSTAINABLE AGGREGATES SYSTEMS — DIGIECOQUARRY’, which receives funding under the EU Horizon 2020 program (No 101003750), aims to design, develop and validate in 5 pilot environments an Innovative Quarrying System (IQS) comprising sensors, processes, tools and methods for data capture, processing and sharing to provide integrated, digitalised, automatic and real-time process control for aggregates quarries.
The DIGIECOQUARRY consortium will combine the latest researched and advanced technologies applied to quarry operation together with the integration of selected innovative digital solutions to boost the capacity of the aggregates industry, to enhance Health & Safety conditions for workers, to improve Selectivity and Efficiency of the aggregates extractive sites, to maximise Sustainability and Resource Efficiency in the quarry operations and to foster Social Acceptance.
Over the next 4 years, hard work will be carried out by the 25 partners and the outstanding professional team of nearly 100 experts involved in it. Led by the Spanish Aggregates Association ANEFA, this international project gathers 25 partners from Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Colombia and South Africa.
Due to the current pandemic situation, the meeting was held telematically. The Teams meeting was attended by more than 70 people from all the entities that make up the consortium: quarries (Granulats Vicat, Hanson Hispania SA, Holcim Aggregati Calcestruzzi SRL, Cronenberger Steinindustrie Franz Triches GmbH & Co and Agrepor Agregados – Extracção de Inertes, S.A), technology and mining companies (Sandvik Mining and Construction OY, Metso Outotec Finland OY, Maxamcorp International S.L., ITK Engineering GMBH, Akka High Tech, Arco Electrónica SA, Ma-estro SRL, DOHMEN HERZOG & Partner GmbH, Abaut GmbH, Sigma Technologies S.L.U., Mintek, ROCTIM AB), consultancy firms (APP Consultoria de Gestión de Proyectos SL, Zabala Innovation Consulting SA), accademia (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Montanuniversität Leoben, Chalmers Tekniska Hoegskola AB) and other entities (Asociacion Colombiana de Productores de Agregados Pétreos, Consejería de Industria, Empleo y Promoción Económica del Principado de Asturias ).
On these two sessions, participants introduced their 10 work packages, tasks, global schedules and work plans for the next 6 months. It culminated with a virtual cocktail in which attendees were able to network and get to know each other.
