The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
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Original computer semiconductor now energizes space ambitions. Germanium is a versatile and powerful semiconductor that traces its technology roots back to the dawn of the Digital Age and continues to lend its superlative semiconducting and optical properties to enhancing computers, smartphones, solar panels, fiber optics, and other devices 80 years later. In 1945, Sylvania introduced the first germanium diode to enhance the vacuum tube computers that launched the Digital...
Space miners develop Earth-friendly tech products as the first step to a future extraterrestrial economy. Plenty of space mining companies have boomed and gone bust in the last decade. In spite of this, "the field has exploded in interest," said Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines. The costs of space travel and exploration have been reduced dramatically due to the privatization of transport. With deep-sea mining still...
Minerbots unite! With an arsenal of lasers and explosives able to reduce mineral-rich bedrock to rubble before morphing into trucks, loaders and other heavy equipment to deliver ore to processing plants that extract the sought-after metals, the Transformers of movie fame would make great miners! While today's mines do not currently employ Optimus Prime-like automatons to produce the metals the world needs and wants, they have developed non-transforming robots on a grandiose...
The last few years have seen big industries' social accountability come to the fore, with growing pressure to engage more holistically with the workforce, local communities, and environmental concerns. Evolving from this, a new business model of corporate performance has arrived in boardrooms, comprising a trifecta of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) responsibilities. Keeping pace is the mining industry's collective push to be more sustainable and accountable,...
With 2022 coming to a close, NASA has announced the 15 teams moving forward to the semi-finals in the $3.5 million Break the Ice Lunar Challenge, an ongoing competition that puts research groups, robotics teams, and private companies in head-to-head trials to design future-tech rovers to harvest the most valuable commodity of all in outer space, water. "We're putting humanity back on the Moon with the Artemis missions, and this is a team effort on a global scale," said Amy...
Two world leaders in mining robotics – Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology and Exyn Technologies Inc. – have formed a partnership that is expected to set the standard for fully autonomous underground mining. A world leader in mining automation, Sandvik has been implementing digital mining solutions for more than two decades. The global mining supplier offers both underground mining equipment and advanced systems for autonomous and remote operations of equipment. Sandvik's Aut...
Axora, a new cross-industry innovation hub providing a global marketplace of digital solutions, has launched an online resource center aimed at helping mining companies rebound from and thrive after the COVID-19 pandemic. This "Smart Mining" resource center provides the latest industry insights and access to digital solutions and technologies which mining companies can adopt to accelerate their business growth, reduce wasted investment, and avoid duplication. "The downtime cau...
Newmont Corp. Feb. 19 announced plans for the world's first open-pit gold mine with an entire fleet of autonomous haul trucks. The company's board of directors unanimously approved investment into this autonomous haulage system at Boddington, a mine in western Australia that produced more than 700,000 ounces of gold and byproduct copper last year. Total net investment in Boddington's autonomous haulage system is slated to be US$150 million. This investment is expected to...
From the enormous equipment that dig up and haul ore to processing facilities that extract the sought-after metals, mines use a lot of energy. Over the past century, the largest share of this energy has come from fossil fuels. In recent years, however, an increasing amount of mine power is coming from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Many mines are in remote locations that are beyond the reach of electrical grids, making them ideal for considering renewable sources...
