MULTIMINER – MULTI-SOURCE AND MULTI-SCALE EARTH OBSERVATION AND NOVEL MACHINE LEARNING METHODS FOR MINERAL EXPLORATION AND MINE SITE MONITORING

The Multi-source and Multi-scale Earth observation and Novel Machine Learning
Methods for Mineral Exploration and Mine Site Monitoring (MultiMiner) project
is a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) project funded from the Horizon Europe
programme in years 2023–2036. The goal of the project is to develop novel data
processing algorithms for cost-effective utilisation of Earth Observation (EO) technologies
for mineral exploration and mine site monitoring (Fig. 1). The purpose
is to further unlock the potential of EO data, including Copernicus, commercial
satellites, upcoming missions, airborne and low altitude as well as in situ data.
Solutions are created for all stages of the mining life cycle including mineral
exploration, operational, closure and post-closure stages. The core idea of the
MultiMiner project is to create innovative machine learning solutions which do
not require any or only little in situ reference data. The project focuses on new
EO based exploration technologies for critical raw materials (CRM) to increase
the probability of finding new sources within EU thereby strengthening the EU
autonomy in the area of raw materials. MultiMiner EO based exploration solutions
have extremely low environmental impact, and are thus socially acceptable,
economically efficient and improve safety. The project’s solutions for mine site
monitoring increase the transparency of mining operations as environmental
impacts can be detected as early as possible and digital information of the currently
unexploitable raw materials can be stored for future generations. The applicability
of the developed algorithms is demonstrated in five European test sites (Fig. 2).
The core scientific work in the project is divided into three work packages where
the first two develop algorithms for mineral exploration and mine site monitoring,
and the third one demonstrates their applicability and accuracy in real mining and
exploration environments of critical and strategic raw materials.