Innovation and R&D Projects and Activities
The ever changing commodity market is constantly generating new challenges to exploration and mining service and technology companies worldwide. Current market conditions have triggered a quest for more cost-reducing exploration and mining technologies and services. DMT, as a leader and driver in the mining technology sector, is actively continuously developing innovative and robust solutions for the commodity market.
DMT is leading and contributing to numerous international innovation projects, including projects funded by the European Union (e.g. Research Fund for Coal and Steel RFCS, EIT Raw Materials, Horizon 2020), the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). We concentrate our innovation activities on the company’s core competences, for instance, sensor-supported monitoring of mining operations, automation of exploration, mining and extraction processes, reactivation and/or remediation of abandoned mine sites, and assessment and certification of mineral resources and ore reserves. DMT also supports education projects and capacity building in the mining sector by supporting and contributing to Masters and Doctoral thesis projects and other training initiatives.
Funding agencies:
EIT RawMaterials
One important pillar of our innovation strategy is currently DMT GmbH & Co. KG’s core membership in the EU-funded EIT RawMaterials. This novel collaboration of stakeholders from industry and academia from various fields of application right across the raw materials value chain is the world’s largest and strongest consortium in the raw materials sector. Initiated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, the consortium of over 100 companies, universities and research institutes strives to boost competitiveness, growth and attractiveness of the European raw materials sector through innovative strength and guided entrepreneurship, as well as delivering increased economic, environmental and social sustainability to European society. DMT, as a core member of this initiative, is active in the strategic target areas of exploration, mining, processing and metallurgy of raw materials from primary and secondary sources, but also in the fields of energy, cokemaking technology, infrastructure and safety.
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
The German government invests heavily in the action areas of education, research and innovation, not only to secure a strong future for the people and economy of Germany, but also to find solutions to global problems and strategies for sustainable growth. DMT has been involved in numerous geotechnical projects supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi)
Finding answers to challenges such as globalisation, digitisation, demographic change, the development of Europe and the transformation of energy systems is the central task of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. A future-oriented economic policy will secure lasting prospects for more employment, investment and growth in Germany.
Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS)
The Research Fund for Coal and Steel is a program of the European Commission, which invests over €50 million every year in innovation projects to enhance the safety, efficiency and competitive edge of the EU coal and steel industries. In recent years DMT has contributed to over 20 RFCS projects on topics such as underground coal gasification, management of mine water and a coal weathering study to improve coke properties and protect coke oven operation.
Horizon Europe
Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of 95.5 billion Euros. It aims to tackle climate change, help to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and boost the EU’s competitiveness and growth, providing funding until 2027. The programme facilitates collaboration and strengthens the impact of research and innovation in developing, supporting and implementing EU policies. It also supports a better creation and transfer of know-how and technology. Horizon Europe succeeds the EU funding programme Horizon 2020.
Horizon 2020
Horizon 2020 was the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme until 2020. Its goal was to ensure Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation. DMT is proud to be part of the the BIOMOre project, which brings together expertise from seven countries and 21 partners at the forefront of innovation in raw materials supply.
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
The European Regional Development Fund is the European Union's main instrument for regional development and aims to strengthen economic and social cohesion in the EU by combating inequalities between the various regions. A focus of the ERDF is on the strengthening of competitiveness and innovation and the need to ensure sustainable development.
DMT is currently involved in the following projects in a leading or supporting capacity:
| Project | Description | Funded by | Duration | DMT contact |
Building EU-Africa partnerships on sustainable raw material value chains | Horizon Europe | 01.06.2022 - 30.11.2025 | Lukas Förster | |
| AGEnT II | Continuation of the development of mine extensions | BMUV | 01.07.2023 - 31.08.2025 | Andreas Hucke |
| Aimon5 | Real-time monitoring of gravitational mass movements for risk management of critical infrastructures with AI-assisted 3D metrology | BMBF | 01.09.2023 - 31.08.2025 | Daniel Czerwonka-Schröder |
Darts | Joint project: DARTS - Data-based routing of routes for underground energy transfer infrastructures | BMBF | 01.03.2024 - 28.02.2027 | Jens Eich |
Establishment of a reliable database for the conflict between wind turbines and seismic measuring stations with special consideration of larger plants (over 4 MW) | progres.nrw | 01.05.2022 - 31.08.2025 | Lorenz Marten | |
EURAD-2 covers the entire radioactive waste management and disposal (including treatment, conditioning and final disposal) for all radioactive waste classes (very low, low, intermediate and high level radioactive). | Horizon Europe | 01.10.2024 - 30.09.2029 | Charlotte Bornhöft | |
GeoTwins | Combination of lab-natural scale experiments in a gepthermal context, including measurements and modelling at various scales. DMT provides wireline logging data interpreation, if needed small scale logging services, seismic monitoring, the development of automatic machine learning detectors and picks, communication platforms based on DMT Safeguard. In the project some of the most important research facilities in the area of geothermal energy production collaborate. For DMT, this holds the chance of increasing our popularity in the french, italian and BENELUX markets as well as adapting new processes and analysis tools to our portfolio. | BMBF | 01.12.2024 - 30.11.2027 | Simon Kremers |
KarboEx 2 | The heat transition is lagging behind the electricity transition and especially the mobility transition in the decarbonisation of our energy supply. In conurbations, the supply of district and local heating plays a special role compared to individual house solutions (heat pumps). A clear step forward here would be the more intensive use of deep geothermal energy as a renewable heat source for these grids. The objective of the project is to facilitate the project planning of deep geothermal projects by providing large-scale preliminary information, thus contributing to the development of geothermal energy as a heat source in a carbon-free heat market. The innovation objective is the elaboration and application of an integrated exploration methodology for geothermal energy. The long-term objective of the innovation is to significantly facilitate the development of deep geothermal energy projects for a carbon-free heat supply in NRW by providing pre-available information (processing of legacy data) on the possible useful aquifers. | EFRE | 01.06.2024 - 28.02.2026 | Sebastian Thronberens |
Material and digital traceability for the certification of critical raw materials | Horizon Europe | 01.01.2023 - 31.12.2025 | Michalis Katapotis | |
Analysis of the utilization potential of phosphogypsum | BMBF | 01.01.2024 - 31.12.2025 | Charlotte Bornhöft |
In the recent past, DMT led or contributed to the following innovation projects:
| Project | Description | Funded by | Duration | DMT contact |
r4 - economically strategic raw materials, joint project DESMEX II - electromagnetic depth sounding for deposit exploration, sub-project 9: customer-specific presentation of the measuring method on the market and support of demonstration measurements | BMBF | 01.07.2019 - 30.06.2023 | Bodo Lehmann / Klaus Limbrock | |
DGE-Rollout faciliates the use of deep geothermal energy as climate friendly energy resource to reduce CO2 emissions and to protect the environment in North-West Europe | EU (INTERREG) | 25.10.2018 – 24.10.2023 | Boris Dombrowski | |
European Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management | Horizon 2020 | 01.06.2019 - 31.05.2024 | Marie Charlotte Bornhöft | |
FloodRisk | Investigation of hazards due to mine water flooding for selected German hard coal mining areas | BMBF | 01.01.2020 – 30.12.2023 | Daniel Czerwonka-Schröder |
Sustainable strategies and technologies for flood risk management in arid and semiarid areas | BMBF | 01.03.2020 – 28.02.2023 | Oliver Stoschek | |
Bright concepts for a safe and sustainable digital mining future | Horizon 2020 | 01.09.2020 - 31.08.2023 | Norbert Gomolla | |
Carbonate exploration NRW - Tapping a heat source for the carbon-free heat market | ERDF | 01.11.2019 – 31.10.2023 | Dirk Orlowsky | |
Low Methane Micro Steam Engine Module | ERDF.NRW | 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2023 | Vitali Kerber | |
PRE-DISposal management of radioactive waste | Horizon 2020 | 01.09.2020 - 31.08.2024 | Marie Charlotte Bornhöft | |
Seismic monitoring of deep geothermal installations and possible seismic impacts | BMWi | 01.05.2019 – 30.04.2023 | Simon Kremers | |
| ANCORELOG | ANCORELOG - Analytical Core Logging System | EIT Raw Materials | 01.01.2018 – 31.03.2021 | Carlos Pina Garcia |
Certification of Raw Materials | EIT Raw Materials | 01.04.2017 – 30.06.2021 | Andreas Hucke | |
| Closurematic | Management Tool for Continuous Mine Closure - Closurematic | EIT Raw Materials | 01.01.2018 – 31.12.2021 | Philip Mittelstädt |
| DeepSpaceBIM | Verbundprojekt: Digitaler Bauassistent zur Handhabung gestörter Bauabläufe mittels Augmented Reality - DeepSpaceBIM | BMVI | 01.08.2018 - 31.08.2021 | Jörg Niese |
| DESMEX II | r4 - wirtschaftsstrategische Rohstoffe, Verbundvorhaben DESMEX II - Elektromagnetische Tiefensondierung für die Lagerstättenerkundung, Teilvorhaben 9: kundenspezifische Präsentation des Messverfahrens am Markt und Begleitung von Demontrationsmessungen | BMBF | 01.07.2019 - 30.06.2023 | Bodo Lehmann / Klaus Limbrock |
| DGE-Rollout | DGE-Rollout faciliates the use of deep geothermal energy as climate friendly energy resource to reduce CO2 emissions and to protect the environment in North-West Europe | EU (INTERREG) | 25.10.2018 – 24.10.2022 | Boris Dombrowski |
| EURAD | European Joint Programme on Radioactive Waste Management | Horizon 2020 | 01.06.2019 - 31.05.2024 | Marie Charlotte Bornhöft |
| FARMIN | Field augmented reality in mineral exploration and mining | EIT RawMaterials | 01.01.2020 - 31.12.2022 | Florian Lowicki |
| FloodRisk | Investigation of hazards due to mine water flooding for selected German hard coal mining areas | BMBF | 01.01.2020 – 30.12.2022 | Daniel Schröder |
| Gateway 2 | Gateway to developing economies | EIT Raw Materials | 01.04.2017 – 31.03.2020 | Philip Mittelstädt |
| HoloMine | Mixed reality for underground mine operations | EIT Raw Materials | 01.01.2019 – 30.06.2022 | Benedikt Wolters |
| HOWAMAN | Sustainable strategies and technologies for flood risk management in arid and semiarid areas | BMBF | 01.03.2020 – 28.02.2023 | Oliver Stoschek |
| I2Mon | Integrated Impact MONitoring: Development of multi-sensor data logger DMT Safeguard GNSS for point cloud data processing and deformation analysis from UAV laserscan and radar satellite data | RFCS | 01.07.2018 – 30.06.2022 | Karsten Zimmermann |
| illuMINEation | Bright concepts for a safe and sustainable digital mining future | Horizon 2020 | 01.09.2020 - 31.08.2023 | Norbert Gomolla |
| Karbo-Ex | Carbonate exploration NRW - Tapping a heat source for the carbon-free heat market | ERDF | 01.11.2019 – 31.10.2022 | Dirk Orlowsky |
| LowCH4 Module | Low Methane Micro Steam Engine Module | ERDF.NRW | 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2023 | Vitali Kerber |
| MINETALC | Backfill Mining Optimisation for Low- and Medium- Strength Deposits | EIT RawMaterials | 02.03.2020-02.03.2023 | Bernd Pflüger |
| MISS | Reduction of the adverse effects of wind turbines on seismological measuring stations | ERDF | 23.03.2018 – 22.05.2021 | Simon Kremers |
| NEMO | Near-zero-waste recycling of low-grade sulphuric mining waste for critical-metal, mineral and construction raw-material production in a circular economy | HORIZON 2020 | 01.05.2018 – 31.10.2022 | Bernd Teigler |
| NEXT | New Exploration Technologies | HORIZON 2020 | 01.05.2018 – 30.09.2021 | Torsten Gorka |
| Odysseus | Coal-to-liquids supply chain integration in view of operational, economic and environmental risk assessments under unfavourable geological settings | RFCS | 01.06.2019 - 31.05.2022 | Torsten Gorka |
| PRASS III | Productivity and safety of shield support | RFCS | 01.07.2017 – 28.02.2021 | Ulrich Langosh |
| PREDIS | PRE-DISposal management of radioactive waste | Horizon 2020 | 01.09.2020 - 31.08.2024 | Marie Charlotte Bornhöft |
| RESEERVE | Mineral potential of the ESEE region | EIT Raw Materials | 01.04.2018 – 30.11.2021 | Bernd Teigler / Florian Lowicki |
| SmartHub2 | IoT communication hub for mining community to optimize machine, systems and process performance | EIT Raw Materials | 01.01.2019 – 31.12.2021 | Norbert Gomolla |
| TEXMIN | The impact of EXtreme weather events on MINing operations | RFCS | 01.06.2019 - 31.05.2022 | Christoph Klinger |
| T-REX | Timegated Raman for Exploration | EIT RawMaterials | 01.01.2020 - 31.12.2021 | Carlos Garca Pina |
| UNDROMEDA | Underground Robotic System for Monitoring, Evaluation and Detection Applications | EIT Raw Materials | 01.01.2018 – 31.12.2021 | Karsten Zimmermann |
For older projects, see the Archive section above right.
