ESA, Hypervine bring blockchain and satellite data together for mining teams

Blockchain image from Pixabay.

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, enablessatellite-sourced information to guarantee accuracy, so quarry companies gainbetter oversight of their operations through the adoption of space assets, suchas 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 toever-changing economic, environmental and governmental policies making easilyaccessible, high quality and up-to-date data vital.

Through the implementation of Hypervine'stechnology, data for mining teams and their subsidiaries is clearly recorded onan unalterable ledger, removing the risk of small changes being magnified downa chain, which could result in potentially catastrophic yet avoidable dangersand miscalculations.

As well as increasing accuracy when surveying andplanning works on a new site, reducing costs, margins for error and potentialrisks for teams on the ground, implementation of Hypervine's systems alsoallows for wider environmental savings through operational efficiencies andcarbon reduction.

"The use ofsatellite-based data for mining work is already a sector experiencing hugeinvestment 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 suchas 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.