Swedish Mining Innovation Award

About Swedish Mining Innovation Award

The Swedish Mining Innovation Award recognizes an innovation or project that has been of great importance to mining and innovation Sweden. The award is aimed at innovations and projects with application in the Swedish mining and metal-producing industry.

There is also the opportunity to nominate a person or other that has been of importance to mining and innovation Sweden with an honorary or inspirational prize.

During the autumn, three finalists will each be presented with a film. The films aim to spread innovation and knowledge about Swedish mining innovation, both nationally and internationally.

Nomination Process 2022

The last day to nominate is 17 June, 2022. You can nominate a colleague, or yourself.

Finalists and the winner are appointed by a jury

From the received nominations, a jury will determine the three finalists for the Swedish Mining Innovation Award. A jury will then name the winner of Swedish Mining Innovation Award at Svemin’s autumn meeting on November 22. If the jury decides to give out an honorary/inspirational prize, it will also be presented at the Award.


Swedish Mining Innovations objective with the Award is to spread knowledge of Swedish mining innovation to both national and international audiences.

 

Nominate for the Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2022!

The nomination process for 2022 has closed. 

Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2021

Hybrit and roadmap for biodiversity are awarded at the Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2021

Press release 18 November 2021

The winner of the Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2021 is Hybrit for the world’s first hydrogen-reduced sponge iron in pellet form. The prize, which rewards something of great importance to mining and innovation Sweden, was awarded earlier today by the national strategic innovation program Swedish Mining Innovation at the industry organization Svemin’s autumn meeting at Nalen in Stockholm.

The other two finalists who settled for the title were Retenua AB for their robust solution emitrace® which increases safety around autonomous vehicles underground and the mining industry’s roadmap for biodiversity, Mining with Nature.

The winner Hybrit, which is a collaborative project between LKAB, Vattenfall and SSAB, has during the summer presented the first hydrogen-reduced sponge iron in pellet form. The goal is carbon dioxide-free steel production, from mining to finished steel, and the hydrogen-reduced sponge iron is crucial for creating a completely fossil-free process. This is part of a solution to a problem that is in a global focus, the impact of industry on the climate.

Jenny Greberg, Program Director Swedish Mining Innovation and chairman of the jury is happy and impressed by this year’s finalists who show both the breadth and height of Swedish mining innovation.

– Hybrit is a project that gets a global imprint and Sweden as a mining nation should be proud of the way you take the baton, run first and lead the technological development that is a necessity for a sustainable society. The project shows the power that collaboration between actors provides, says Jenny.

Jan Moström, CEO of LKAB received the award on behalf of the Hybrit consortium and he wanted to extend a big thank you to above all the talented people in Hybrit Luleå who made it possible.

– The people who should receive this award are actually the talented researchers who have solved many of the problems that have arisen, and we envisage that in the near future we will start converting iron production. So thank you!, says Jan.

During the award ceremony, the jury revealed that they had decided to award an inspirational prize to the mining industry’s roadmap for biodiversity. The industry-wide roadmap is an innovation in itself as it is the first of its kind, and although there are other roadmaps for climate-free competitiveness in widely differing industries, there was no similar initiative in terms of biodiversity. The roadmap is called Mining with Nature and the work of producing it has been led by the industry organization Svemin.

Linda Bjurholt, Environmental Manager at LKAB and the chair of the steering group received the award. – One of the ideas in developing this roadmap is to be able to inspire others. We have not come as far in planning when it comes to counteracting the threat to biodiversity as when it comes to the climate, but I hope that in 5-10 years we will have a similar Hybrit initiative on the biodiversity side as well, says Linda.

The jury consisted of chairman Jenny Greberg, Program Director Swedish Mining Innovation, Lennart Evrell, board member SCA, SSAB, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, ICA and Epiroc, Maria Sunér, CEO Svemin and Cecilia Sjöberg, Head of Department, Industrial Development, Vinnova.

The jury’s motivations
The winner Hybrit
This is a pioneering solution to a problem that is in a global focus, the impact of industry on the climate. Through outstanding collaboration and a unique holistic approach, this innovation has taken the lead in industrial transformation, not only in Sweden but also internationally. The winner of the Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2021 is Hybrit with the owners LKAB, Vattenfall and SSAB for the world’s first hydrogen-reduced sponge iron, a crucial milestone in creating a completely fossil-free value chain from mine to steel.

The inspiration award for Mining with Nature
By highlighting a global challenge and concentrating the industry around a common issue that is critical for a future sustainable planet, it shows in an exemplary and inspiring way how the basic industry can and must work on a broad front to minimize its footprint. The project is unique and is the world’s first of its kind. This year’s inspiration award goes to Mining with Nature – The mining industry’s roadmap for biodiversity.

Jan Moström, CEO LKAB receives the Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2021. Photo: Axel Öberg.

 

Linda Bjurholt, Environmental Manager at LKAB and the chair of the steering group receive the Inspiration Award. Photo: Axel Öberg.


Here are the finalists in the Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2021

Press release 10 November 2021

It is now clear who the three finalists in this year’s Swedish Mining Innovation Award are. The prize awarded by the national strategic innovation program Swedish Mining Innovation rewards an innovation or a project that is of great importance to mining and innovation in Sweden.

The three finalists are Retenua AB for their robust solution that increases safety around autonomous vehicles underground, Hybrit for the world’s first hydrogen-reduced sponge iron in pellet form and the mining industry’s roadmap for biodiversity. The three finalists work in three completely different areas and all contribute to a sustainable industry and to put Swedish mining innovation on the international map.

Jenny Greberg, program director for Swedish Mining Innovation, and also chairman of the jury, finds it inspiring that the finalists are three very different innovations.
– Our finalists reflect the breadth of Swedish mining innovation and how the industry works in a number of areas, all of which are necessary to achieve the lofty goals linked to sustainability and competitiveness. Two of the finalists are clear guides in a global perspective, and the third is a solution linked to personal safety that can be applied in very many mines around the world, regardless of technological maturity. All of them are excellent examples of Swedish mining innovation, says Jenny.

Retenua’s solution, which is a very robust and simple solution to a problem of great importance, has previously been partly applied in other industries but has now been adapted for the mining industry and its demanding conditions. The technology simply consists of a solution for detecting people by seeing reflections. This is done with the help of an IR camera and AI-driven smart vision technology. As the solution does not require advanced communication systems, very many mines can adopt the innovation.

The finalist Hybrit, which is a collaborative project between LKAB, Vattenfall and SSAB, has during the summer presented the world’s first direct-reduced sponge iron in pellet form reduced with hydrogen. The goal is carbon dioxide-free steel production, from mining to finished steel, and the hydrogen-reduced sponge iron is crucial for creating a completely fossil-free process. This is part of a solution to a problem that is in a global focus, the impact of industry on the climate.

The third finalist differs from the more technical innovations and is the mining industry’s roadmap for biodiversity. The industry-wide roadmap is an innovation in itself as it is the first of its kind. Although we in Sweden today have over 20 roadmaps for climate-free competitiveness in widely differing industries, there was no similar initiative in terms of biodiversity. The roadmap is called Mining with Nature and the work has been led by the industry organization Svemin.

The jury consists of chairman Jenny Greberg, Program director Swedish Mining Innovation, Lennart Evrell, board member SCA, SSAB, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, ICA and Epiroc, Maria Sunér Flemming, CEO Svemin and Cecilia Sjöberg, Head of Industrial Technologies, Vinnova.

In the coming week, the three finalists will be presented in more detail, and the final winner of the Swedish Mining Innovation Award will be crowned at Svemin’s Autumn Meeting at Nalen in Stockholm on 18 November.


Interviews with the finalists

 


Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2020

Orexplore and Minalyze winners of Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2020

Press release 2020-11-17

When the Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2020 was presented during the day, it was clear that the jury had chosen to give the award to two innovations that work with different solutions to modernize and increase the processing rate and effectiveness compared to traditional methods for mapping mineral deposits; Orexplore for their X-ray technology for drill cores and Minalyze for their scanners of large volumes of drilling samples.

As many processes in mining have advanced in recent years, traditional methods for mapping mineral deposits have not changed much, and are often slow and inefficient. In addition, the process is complicated by the fact that the examinations are often done in inaccessible places. Orexplore and Minalyze have both developed innovations that in different ways contribute with solutions to the same challenge.

Jenny Greberg, program director for Swedish Mining Innovation and chairman of the jury, wants to emphasize the value of being able to map in detail what is under the ground and get the information quickly, which is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle in an efficient process.
– New methods for mapping minerals can in the future change the entire life cycle of the mine, but above all ensure the access to raw materials that the world needs, says Jenny. During the jury work, these two innovations stood out for their height of innovation, commercial value and global potential. The fact that two Swedish companies contribute with solutions that dramatically improve such an important process is proof that Swedish mining innovation is world-class.

Lennart Evrell, board member of SCA, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, ICA and Epiroc are part of the jury.
– This was really not an easy task for the jury, it was almost impossible to rank the two, says Lennart. It was clear to us early on that they both have innovations that in various ways improve and shorten the process from exploration to producing mines. The further into the jury work we got, the clearer it became that both were worthy of attention.

– Being named a winner feels incredibly honoring and fun! We are at the absolute forefront of technology and I am extremely proud of what our talented employees have achieved! I also feel grateful for the support we have received from Innovation Sweden, especially Vinnova, which has made a strong contribution to our development. That Swedish Mining Innovation highlights and rewards innovations in the field of digital mineral analysis feels extra important as it points out that continued digitization and automation of mapping of discoveries is the future and contributes to more sustainable and efficient mining, says Kevin Rebenius, CEO of Orexplore.

– I am very proud to receive this award in recognition of my and my team’s hard and determined work in creating Minalyzer CS and minalogger.com. Through our innovations, we create the conditions for digitizing the mining industry. We will manage this award well and will continue to ensure that Sweden is at the forefront of mining innovations, says Annelie Lundström, CEO of Minalyze.

This year, the jury also chose to award a special inspiration prize to the VR mine developed by the Swedish consortium within the SIMS project, with Epiroc and Luleå University of Technology at the forefront.

– Of all the nominations, it stood out because it showed the collaboration on which the Swedish mining innovation system is so successfully based, and also because it is aimed at a very important target group – children, young people and the general public, says Jenny Greberg.

The virtual mining environment is developed based on game technology and with a focus on visualization and shows world-leading sustainable intelligent mining in a way that creates interest even outside the mining industry. It 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.

The award, which is presented by the national strategic innovation program Swedish Mining Innovation, draws attention to innovations related to mining and metal extraction, and was presented at the industry organization Svemin’s autumn meeting during the day. 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 Orexplore
Orexplore’s revolutionary X-ray technology provides in a short time detailed insight into the interior of the drill core in 3D, such as knowledge of structures, density, mineralogy and levels, all in one and the same scan. Orexplore’s solution is currently used by mines in Europe and Australia. The innovation has great development potential even for substances with low detection levels such as gold, which is the focus for a large part of the global exploration.

Motivation Minalyze
Minalyze’s unique scanner and cloud-based software for digitizing large volumes of drilling samples generates high-resolution and consistent data through fast, non-destructive collection of multiple datasets. Minalyze has achieved international commercial success with users in Europe, Australia and North America, thereby demonstrating the benefits of innovation to global industry.

Motivation to the VR-mine
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.

Kevin Rebenius, Orexplore and Annelie Lundström, Minalyze at the award ceremony.

Arash Källmark LTU

Arash Källmark, LTU

See the Award again….

Here you can see the award ceremony afterwards (2: 32.01 in the broadcast).

Film with the three finalists

Film about the VR-mine

2020 Finalists

 

 


Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2019

2019 Winner

The winner of SIP STRIM Swedish Mining Innovation Award 2019 is… Mobilaris

Hans Wahlquist and Mikael Nyström Mobilaris. Photo: Henry Lundholm/Tale

A special Honarary prize is awarded to… Jan-Eric Sundkvist, Boliden

Jan-Eric Sundkvist. Photo: Henry Lundholm/Tale

2019 Finalists

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