METS Ignited to fund four collaborative mining technology projects

Posted by Daniel Gleeson on 8th October 2020

In line with the Federal Government’s recently published Modern Manufacturing Strategy, METS Ignited has announced the latest award of projects as a part of its Industry Growth Centre collaborative project funds.

It has announced the award of METS Ignited Tranche 4 Collaborative Project Funds, with the combined investment of over A$6 million ($4.3 million) from METS Ignited and industry partners going to AMOG Pty Limited, Gekko Systems, Polymathian, and Universal Field Robotics.

The fourth round of the funds focused on the application of analytics, automation and robotics in the mining industry. The selected projects have originated in the local market, are industry-led, and are projected to deliver a high degree of global impact potential and substantial benefits to the METS sector, according to the group.

The success of these four projects with over 17 industry partners in total is projected to deliver almost two hundred new roles, and generate a combined revenue contribution of over A$100 million for the sector, it said.

“METS Ignited’s role as an Industry Growth Centre is to lead collaboration between Australian mining equipment technology and service (METS) companies, global suppliers, mine operators, research organisations and capital providers to support the improved productivity, competitiveness and innovative capacity of the Australia’s world-leading METS sector,” METS Ignited said.

METS Ignited Chief Executive, Adrian Beer, says the quality and capability of the funding applicants is becoming increasingly more sophisticated, with a number of the solutions having broader applicability across a number of sectors.

“This round of project fund recipients demonstrates just how capable our leading global METS sector is, and what is possible within our local technology sector,” Beer said. “We are extremely proud of what has been achieved by the project fund recipients to date, and this new addition to the project funding shows that we have a huge potential to build upon.”

(pictured is Polymathian’s ORB mining optimisation software)