Glasgow-based start-up Hypervine, announced Monday the start of a project, co-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), to develop services using space-based data to improve efficiencies for extractive industries.
Hypervine, through its blockchain ledger, enables
satellite-sourced information to guarantee accuracy, so quarry companies gain
better oversight of their operations through the adoption of space assets, such
as readings for topography, liquid, mineral and density readings.
Hypervine has worked with Edinburgh’s Napier University and is currently involved in the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA) and its partnered Tontine incubator.
Data for mining teams and their subsidiaries is clearly recorded on an unalterable ledger, removing the risk of small changes being magnified down a chain
Mining companies have to constantly adapt to
ever-changing economic, environmental and governmental policies making easily
accessible, high quality and up-to-date data vital.
Through the implementation of Hypervine’s
technology, data for mining teams and their subsidiaries is clearly recorded on
an unalterable ledger, removing the risk of small changes being magnified down
a chain, which could result in potentially catastrophic yet avoidable dangers
and miscalculations.
As well as increasing accuracy when surveying and
planning works on a new site, reducing costs, margins for error and potential
risks for teams on the ground, implementation of Hypervine’s systems also
allows for wider environmental savings through operational efficiencies and
carbon reduction.
“The use of
satellite-based data for mining work is already a sector experiencing huge
investment and funding across private and nationalised space programs, said Beatrice Barresi,
technical officer, ESA Space Solutions said. “It is a core goal of ours to make industries such
as quarrying safer, cleaner and more accountable.”
There are currently a number of projects in planning to develop digital tools using satellite applications, including a proposed follow-on mining project to further increase the use of cutting edge digital processes in the mining sector, Hypervine said. Whilst already working with firms in Germany, the UK and the US including Galliford Try Plc., Hypervine was recently announced as part of the latest cohort to join the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA) / Tontine incubator in Glasgow.