Coming out of its most successful DEMOday, IMII is pleased to announce that 2S Water (Edmonton, AB) – developer of the Aquavalid Sensor, has been selected by its minerals industry members BHP, Cameco, Mosaic and Nutrien, as the Innovation Award winner for 2022. This announcement is being made in association with the 14th Annual Saskatchewan Mining Supply Chain Forum (Saskatchewan Mining Supply Chain Forum (mscf.ca)).
“2S Water has a mission of protecting water with real time data, and this mission is shared with the mining industry and IMII’s minerals member company specifically,” says Al Shpyth, IMII Executive Director. “The automated sensor has the potential to assist the minerals industry with process optimization, incident prevention and effluent monitoring and make a meaningful contribution to our members’ ESG efforts” he adds.
For the first time, IMII is also awarding honourable mentions to two other technology developers who were invited to pitch their innovations at DEMOday 2022:
- Copperstone Technologies (Edmonton, AB), in collaboration with the MMKL Group of Companies in Saskatoon and Birch Narrows Dene Development for HELIX – Amphibious Robots for Hazardous Site Investigation; and
- SolarSteam (Calgary, AB) for their solar heat for industrial processes technology.
DEMOday 2022 saw the largest number of applications for the opportunity to pitch innovative environmental, safety, mill, and underground technologies to IMII’s minerals company members, the largest number selected to pitch, and the largest number selected for follow up proposals by the industry. It also saw the closest competition for the Innovation Award – which has resulted in the selection of 2S Water and the recognition of Copperstone and SolarSteam. In all, five innovative companies/technologies were nominated out of DEMOday 2022 for this year’s Innovation Award.
“IMII’s vision is to make Saskatchewan home to the world’s most innovative and sustainable mining and minerals industry,” says Shpyth. “DEMOday is an opportunity for suppliers and other innovators to submit technologies that can help address our industry’s needs for solutions on this path, and IMII’s Innovation Award is our opportunity to recognize those suppliers that are responding and helping our members achieve improved environmental outcomes – such as 2S Water and SolarSteam, and safer mine work environments such as Copperstone.”
These three companies, as well as several others selected out of DEMOday for further development, demonstration or deployment proposals may be eligible to receive up to $250,000 in funding from IMII and to partner with one or more of IMII’s minerals company members in a collaborative technology project to demonstrate or trial their solution in a supportive mining environment.
