Canada-based Minerva Intelligence's DRIVER artificial intelligence (AI) platform has won Axora's global Cost-Saving Technology Challenge.
B2B digital solutions marketplace Axora launched the Cost-Saving Technology Challenge in May to uncover new digital cost-saving technology solutions for the metals and mining (M&M) and energy, oil and gas (O&G) industries that can deliver rapid benefits including full payback and return on investment (ROI) within 12 months.
The aim of the competition was to help companies that have been impacted by recent budget cuts due to factors such as the global pandemic, slump in demand and price wars.
The competition's judging panel included experts from the Boston Consulting Group's Digital Ventures as well as other key companies and organisations across the technology, energy, oil and gas, and mining and metals sectors.
According to Axora, Minerva Intelligence fought off competitors with its AI-powered platform, DRIVER. It analyses multi-element data to simulate the 3D distribution and overlap of all the elements in a drilling dataset, where typically millions to tens of millions is spent on drilling.
Dr Nick Mayhew, chief commercial officer at Axora, said: "It was an extremely close competition, but the judges unanimously agreed to award Minerva Intelligence's DRIVER the first prize because its business case was so compelling. Minerva was able to demonstrate how its platform could save upwards of $75,000 per drillhole that you don't drill, typically saving many times the cost of the solution, providing a hard cash saving together with time-to-completion advantages and a relatively simple deployment model."
Samuel Cantor, section head, economic geology at Minerva Intelligence, commented: "We're delighted to win Axora's Cost Saving Technology Challenge. Using DRIVER allows exploration and mining teams to make data-driven targeting decisions rapidly, saving them both time and money. We look forward to helping more companies improve the way they carry out mineral exploration in the future."
The other six finalists, which all met the competition criteria were:
- FYLD - A field worker productivity and safety platform ((for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries);
- GOARC - A digital Permit to Work solution, which reduces costs associated with paperwork and manual error in authorising planned work procedures (for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries);
- Hardhat - An integrated SaaS platform to manage safety, projects, stakeholders, and operations (for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries);
- Razor Labs - An AI platform for multiple use cases including providing predictive maintenance to reduce unplanned downtime (for the mining and metals industry);
- Senseye - An insurance-backed ROI predictive maintenance solution (for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries); and
- Tyrion - A secure industrial IoT solution for integrating multiple data sets (for both the mining and metals and oil and gas industries).
Mayhew added: "The aim of Axora's Cost Saving Technology Challenge was to help firms impacted by recent budget cuts due to a variety of factors, including the global pandemic, slump in demand and price wars. Axora is committed to helping industrial companies become more efficient, more sustainable and safer, and digital solutions like Minerva Intelligence's DRIVER can help deliver rapid benefits at a time when they are needed most."
Minerva's winning cost-saving solution will be onboarded onto the Axora marketplace as well as its digital marketing programme, which drives demand for solutions like this one with mining companies globally.
