Important milestone reached in ¡VAMOS! mining project

¡VAMOS!, the Viable Alternative Mining Operating System, a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, has reached a major milestone with the successful delivery of conceptual design plans of the prototype and all associated equipment.

The work was carried out in Work Package 2 (WP2), which also designed the system’s architecture and its functional specifications. WP2 is now successfully completed and the ¡VAMOS! Consortium is looking forward to the challenges ahead.

At a Technical Project Meeting held in Nijkerk, The Netherlands, 7-8 September, the project status was evaluated. Frank Bosman, Manager Research Development & Innovation at Damen Dredging Equipment, based in Nijkerk, says that the conclusion of WP2 demonstrated that the partnership behind the project was functioning well.

¡VAMOS! will test the equipment on four existing mine sites across Europe within the next 2 years to prove the new submerged inland mining concept.

¡VAMOS! is a 42-month research and development project launched to enable the opening and rehabilitation of underexploited European mineral deposits, using a safe, clean and low visibility method.

Currently, the EU consumes in the region of 25-35 per cent of the world’s metal production, whilst EU-based mineral extraction accounts for just 3 per cent of global ore production. This situation leads to the EU’s importation of around 200 million tonnes of minerals per year.

With a total of 17 partners from 9 EU countries, ¡VAMOS! seeks to address this situation by making possible the extraction of European mineral deposits from inland water-bearing areas. To reach this aim, the partners are developing an innovative system whereby a remotely operated mining vehicle is launched from a waterborne carriage. The underwater mining equipment is operated without any effect on groundwater levels.