First-Ore to deploy AI at Russia’s most northerly mine

First Ore-Mining Company, a part of mining division of Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation, and Zyfra, a Finnish-Russian digital solutions provider for heavy industries, announced this week that they have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in deploying artificial intelligence-based solutions in mining and enrichment operations at the Pavlovskoe deposit, where there are plans to build the most northerly mining enterprise in Russia.

In a press release, the companies said that the idea is to give themselves three years to explore a possible project to implement robotics and remote control of quarry equipment at Pavlovskoe.

The system enables the extraction of minerals in inaccessible and remote regions with severe climatic and subsurface conditions

According to Zyfra’s CEO, Igor Bogachev, once the project comes to fruition, it will provide efficient mechanisms to deal with the difficulties of operating under extreme climatic conditions. “The robotized systems offered by our subsidiary VIST Group, including Intelligent Mine, will reduce equipment downtime by 10-20% and maintenance costs by 15-18%, thereby cutting production costs by 2-3%,” he said.

The executive explained that Intelligent Mine is a set of digital technologies that employ AI and predictive analytics for managing open-pit mining processes based on robotized lоad-haul systems.

“We are beginning this work in advance, so that the very first ore will be produced using advanced technologies in the safest possible conditions,” Igor Semenov, Executive Director of First Ore-Mining Company, said in the media brief.

The Pavlovskoe lead-zinc deposit is located in the South Island of the Novaya Zemlya arctic archipelago in Russia’s northeastern Arkhangelsk Region. First-Ore’s plan is to build a mining and enrichment complex there to produce lead and zinc concentrate with a capacity of up to 3.5 million tonnes of ore per year.