(With extra pictures) Vamos, the Viable Alternative Mining Operating System, a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, has passed a major milestone with the delivery of conceptual design plans of the prototype and all associated equipment.

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

In WP3 the partners will initially be detailing the system components further, and  will focus on verifying and validating the design. Vamos will test the equipment on four existing mine sites across Europe within the next two years to prove the new submerged inland mining concept.

Vamos

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

Featuring a total of seventeen partners from nine 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. 

Pictures: The album below features extra artist impressions of the prototype (all supplied by Damen, Damen Dredging Equipment is one of the Vamos partners and is responsible for developing and supplying the slurry circuitry components and the launch and recovery system for the mining vehicle). Please click the pop-out link to view the pictures in their proper dimensions.