Prospect Mining Studio supports startups of all stages, forward-thinking innovators, and prominent researchers as they build, pilot, and scale frontier technologies that will advance the natural resource and mining industries with a focus on sustainable and socially responsible solutions. A catalyst for change in the industry, the studio is a partnership between leading Indian mining conglomerate, the Vimson Group, and innovation hub, Newlab. Each 12-month program cycle explores new possibilities in mining by bringing together startups, entrepreneurs, mining industry experts, venture partners, and leading academics from across the globe to define challenges, prototype rapidly, and implement pilots at mining sites, all while building efficiencies, measuring impact and disrupting the status quo.
If you are a corporation, investor, or industry expert interested in partnering with Prospect Mining Studio outside of our open call, please contact us.
PROGRAM PHASES
Prospect brings together teams of research analysts, industry experts, engineers and entrepreneurs to realize untapped opportunities in the natural resources and mining industry. We are building advanced data tools to support our research and studio ecosystem. A range of mining experts provide first-hand insights and evaluate key findings. The knowledge base generated in this phase guides the program thesis and the selection process for identifying teams to participate in the Studio.
Prospect will convene stakeholders for a summit on December 11th, 2019 at Newlab to present and refine challenges for the next phases of the program. Select teams from the open call will be invited to the summit to showcase their work and engage with mining industry experts and investors. The summit sessions will surface and prioritize high impact mining challenges while uncovering compelling technologies and solutions that could be applied to the industry. Teams unable to attend the summit will still have the opportunity to participate in the Engage phase.
Up to 12 teams will be selected to continue in the program, engaging Vimson, Newlab, and the supporting ecosystem of experts to progress towards clear milestones. Teams will be matched with the resources best suited to their stage of development and greatest needs such as mining, operational and site data or financial support to build industry-specific technology applications. Mature companies will be given opportunities to fast-track to the pilot phase. All teams will gain access to Newlab’s community, network, prototyping facilities and workspaces as well as a cohort of mining experts. Teams will be able to participate remotely and are not required to relocate to New York City for this phase.
Teams meeting the necessary milestones will pilot and validate their technologies at Vimson or partner mining sites. This phase will support teams in product integration, expose them to additional investment opportunities and help accelerate products to market.
OUTCOMES
- Bring together frontier technologies and applied entrepreneurship to address the mining industry’s most pressing challenges around efficiencies, future of workforce, data optimization and reducing carbon footprint
- Establish partnerships between mining industry leaders and innovators from startup and academic research communities
- Validate and advance technologies to market through piloting at mining sites
- Create unique investment deal flow to commercialize technologies and scale businesses that gain traction in the Studio
TIMELINE
Sep 13 – Dec 6, 2019
Dec 11, 2019
Jan – Jun 2020
Ongoing
Fall 2020
FOCUS AREAS
Prospect believes a range of emerging technologies will create impactful, scalable opportunities across the $1T mining industry. Prospect Mining Studio will touch all aspects of the mining value chain, including prospecting & surveying, exploration, mine design & planning, production, and mine closure & mitigation.
APPLICATION AREAS INCLUDE
- Mineral Discovery and Extraction
- Energy Efficiency
- Water Management
- Sustainability and Closed Loop Production
- Waste Recovery
- Worker Performance and Safety
- Data and Logistics Optimization
TECHNOLOGIES INCLUDE
- Computer Vision
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
- Robotics
- Augmented and Virtual Reality
- Synthetic Biology, Chemistry, and Material Science
- Telecommunications and Networking
- Industrial IoT
- Geomechanics and Geometallurgy
2020 Cohort
Stony Brook, NY
Allied Microbiota develops microbes and their enzymes to clean-up environmental contamination, and create sustainable bio-chemicals. Their disruptive augmentation cultures have shown ground breaking results to treat PCBs, Dioxins and chlorinated compounds in soil and sediments.
Calgary, Alberta
Carbon Upcycling Technologies (CUT) converts CO2 gas emissions from point sources such as power plants into solid products. Their proprietary technology chemically absorbs CO2 emissions into exfoliated inorganic solids to create a portfolio of fine nanoparticles.
Zurich, Switzerland
CyanoGuard combines chemical sensing technology with a cloud-based data visualization and analysis solution that enables further integration of sensor data for holistic monitoring & optimization of cyanide usage in gold leaching processes.
Philadelphia, PA
Exyn Technologies develops autonomous aerial robot systems, also referred to as autonomous UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), for data acquisition and collection in complex, GPS-denied industrial environments.
Bhubaneswar, India
Innocule offers a range of proprietary additives, consisting of specialty chemicals and polymers to create products such as dispersants, dewatering aids, flow aids, and grinding aids that are customized to each customer, enhancing productivity and reducing ore processing costs.
Brooklyn, NY
To enable better computer vision development, LexSet has created TDaaS (Training Data as a Service), using 3D content to create photo-realistic synthetic data to train Vision AI models. The approach allows users to generate limitless amounts of training data on-demand.
Santa Barbara, CA
Lixivia has developed hydrometallurgical technology able to refine a large range of mineral mixtures which include low grade lime, dolime, various types of steel and iron slag, rare earth metals, and lithium. Lixivia enables their partners to capture more value from their minerals.
Vancouver, BC
LlamaZOO’s spatial business intelligence platform empowers organizations to stitch together data from across their operations and visualize it in the context of real-world locations.
Toronto, Ontario
Novamera is developing an integrated system using directional drilling equipment and imaging technology, called Sustainable Mining by Drilling (“SMD”), that can help define the geometry of mineral deposits followed by a precise excavation technique that is sustainable, safe and economic.
Sudbury, Ontario
Objectivity utilizes AI-based algorithms to improve the efficiency of resource conversion drilling during critical pre-production activity, reducing project development timelines & improving ROI.
Arnhem, Netherlands
OneWatt predicts and detects faults in industrial equipment by literally listening to motors using predictive AI and their Embedded Acoustic Recognition Sensors (EARS). Their non-intrusive solution saves industrial users, plant managers, and owners from unplanned downtime, revenue losses, and unproductive maintenance.
Woburn, MA
Phoenix Tailings offers an end-to-end, zero-carbon solution to sustainably harvest valuable metals from hazardous mining waste, leveraging untapped value within mining and refining waste, economically and sustainably.
Brooklyn, NY
Pliant Energy Systems conceptualizes, patents and develops highly novel technologies in the fields of marine robotics, propulsion, electricity generation, and pumping.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
RIO Analytics develops artificial intelligence applications to predict failures of industrial assets. By combining advanced industrial analytics and AI, RIO analytics has built a digital platform capable of predicting failures, reducing downtime and increasing operational efficiency.
APPLY
Applications to Prospect Mining Studio are now closed. Please check back for program updates and future opportunities to get involved.
PARTNERS
Prospect Mining seeks leading corporate and venture partners who are interested in helping drive innovation in the mining sector. Benefits of partnership include: engagement with a curated portfolio of talented technology entrepreneurs, participation in ideation workshops, access to cutting edge research, engagement with proof-of-concepts and prototypes for partner-driven challenges, and opportunity to participate in strategic investments.
Founding partners:
If you are a mining industry leader, a researcher, or expert and would like to participate in our innovation studio focused on transformational technologies applied to the mining industry, please let us know.
TEAM
The team is comprised of leaders from Vimson Group and Newlab, who are committed to fostering entrepreneurship and creating positive change through sustainable mining. The team also includes a diverse network of experts in both the mining industry and relevant technology domains who guide and advise participating innovators as they shape the future of mining.
Interested in how the mining industry can leverage technology to address pressing challenges? Prospect is seeking an Investment Analyst to join the team. Apply here.
ADVISORS
News
From predictive analytics to chemical innovation, data-driven solutions present new opportunities for mining companies to maximize operational efficiency and avoid unnecessary downtime.
Prospect Mining Studio is offering mining start-ups time in the spotlight and supports them in becoming cornerstones in the mining industry of the future. Mining Magazine’s Donna Schmidt investigates.
Learn how new visualization platforms and advanced algorithms will help mining companies exceed process objectives while consuming minimal amounts of energy.
Novel advances in chemistry and biology are being adapted to address one of the mining industry’s biggest challenges: waste.
As corporations continue to navigate their approach to innovation, active startup partnerships and pilots are key opportunities for the entrepreneur and mining operator to come together.
Founded in 2016, CyanoGuard is Swiss-based chemtech startup dedicated to shaping the future of cyanide detection, monitoring and optimization for gold mining applications.
We caught up with Apoorv Sinha, CEO of Carbon Upcycling Technologies, who focus is on the conversion of CO2 gas emissions into solid products from point sources such as power plants.
The startup teams in the 2020 cohort will now engage Vimson, Newlab and the supporting ecosystem of experts to progress towards clear milestones.
2020 cohort
Prospect Mining Studio, a partnership between the Vimson Group and Newlab, is thrilled to announce the first cohort of startups for the 2020 program cycle!
Newlab and Vimson Group have confirmed the cohort of 15 new companies in the Prospect Mining Studio after choosing start-ups from across the world.
On December 11th, Newlab convened a group of nearly 50 mining companies, cutting-edge startups, academic researchers, and industry experts for the inaugural Prospect Mining Summit.
APPLY
Applications for Prospect Mining Studio’s first Open Call are now closed. However, we are always interested in hearing from teams eager to apply their frontier technology to mining. Fill out the form below to be considered for relevant future projects and cycles of the program.
CRITERIA
- Have a technology relevant to at least one of the defined focus areas
- Have a team in place with technology expertise and/or be willing to work closely with an entrepreneur-in-residence
- Be able to commit to participation in the Engage and Pilot phases of the program