Project description
Mapping mines for a sustainable future
The demand for minerals powering the energy transition and digital tech is rising fast. This is why it is important to ensure responsible mineral extraction. Addressing this challenge requires clear insight into mining operations, such as mine locations and how much waste they create. The ERC-funded MINE-THE-GAP project aims to develop computer models that use satellite imagery to track land use, waste piles and raw materials at individual mines worldwide. By building a high-quality global database, the project trains scalable models that can monitor mining activities everywhere, providing timely, actionable spatial information to support sustainable resource management.
Objective
The global surge in mining, driven by decarbonisation and digitalisation, has uncovered a critical gap in our understanding of its environmental and social impacts and risks. Despite the seemingly abundant knowledge about mining operations, they remain largely unmeasured, even within the European Union, posing a challenge to sustainable development efforts. Essential indicators, such as geographical locations, waste generation, and details of extracted minerals and commodities, are surprisingly scant worldwide. Satellite images and artificial intelligence algorithms are prominent technologies to fill this knowledge gap. However, scaling the mapping of mining indicators to the global level remains a challenge due to the small size and low quality of training sets. The MINE-THE-GAP project will lay the foundations of an innovative methodology to scale up the production of mine-level indicators. Methodologically, the project presents a breakthrough by integrating high-precision data products from various satellite sources to substantially enrich training sets that will enable the creation of scalable artificial intelligence models to effectively map mine land use, waste generation, and types of extracted minerals and commodities. This approach will allow the production of mine-level indicators that are timely, locally relevant, and globally reliable, and ensure the continuous improvement of models beyond the project's timeline as new high-precision data becomes available. For the first time, MINE-THE-GAP will unlock new avenues in sustainability research, overcoming previous obstacles due to the lack of essential geoinformation on mining. The project will create the basis for scalable mining site monitoring, essential for enforcing European supply chain transparency laws and achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering satellite technology
- social sciences law
You need to log in or register to use this function
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1020 Wien
Austria
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.