LLC Kryvbas Ecotechnologies – Partner in a Consortium Awarded Funding under the Horizon Europe Programme

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Words of gratitude

The team of LLC Kryvbas Ecotechnologies would like to express its sincere and heartfelt gratitude to the project manager, Dr. Viktoriia Tkachuk (https://www.linkedin.com/in/viktoriia-tkachuk/), for involving our organisation in this large-scale European consortium. It is thanks to her dedicated work, professionalism and support at every stage of the proposal preparation that LLC Kryvbas Ecotechnologies has had the opportunity to join the ROX-6G project and represent the interests of the Ukrainian mining industry at the European level.

LLC Kryvbas Ecotechnologies (KET) has joined an international consortium whose project has been selected for funding under the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, call HORIZON-CL4-2026-01. The project is ROX-6G: Robotics for Optimized underground eXploration and geological intelligence enabled by 6G – the development of robotic technologies for autonomous underground exploration using 6G connectivity and artificial intelligence.

About the project

The ROX-6G consortium brings together 13 organisations from 9 European countries, coordinated by Aalborg University (Denmark). The consortium also includes Kryvyi Rih National University (KNU), leading research institutions from Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Serbia, as well as innovative technology companies and industrial partners, including European Bauxites (METLEN).

The project’s goal is to create a swarm of autonomous robots (quadrupeds and wheeled platforms) capable of operating in underground workings that are inaccessible or hazardous to humans – flooded, unventilated or structurally unstable sections of mines. The robots will carry out geophysical, geochemical and mineralogical surveys, build 4D digital twins of deposits, and generate uncertainty-aware prospectivity maps using AI models.

The project supports the objectives of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) and aims to accelerate domestic exploration of critical raw materials across Europe, including scandium, vanadium and yttrium.

The role of LLC Kryvbas Ecotechnologies

One of the three real-world pilot sites of the project (alongside Serbia and Greece) is the Ternivska Mine (PJSC Kryvbaszhelezorudkom) in the Kryvyi Rih Basin, where trials will be conducted at depths of up to 1,500 metres. LLC Kryvbas Ecotechnologies is contributing to:

  • digitising and harmonising legacy geological, geochemical and geophysical data to populate the Geological Intelligence Repository;
  • baseline assessment of pilot sites and definition of trial scenarios;
  • dissemination of project results among junior mining companies;
  • future uptake of project results in operational processes and exploration planning.

Significance for the region

Participation in the ROX-6G consortium gives LLC Kryvbas Ecotechnologies access to cutting-edge autonomous underground exploration technologies, strengthens cooperation with leading European research and industrial partners, and contributes to the EU’s strategy of open strategic autonomy in raw materials.

The project will run for 36 months. Further updates on its progress will be published on the company’s website and on the official ROX-6G project page.

LLC KRYVBAS ECOTECHNOLOGIES joins partnership with SRMI KNU, Rudomain LLC, Ukrainian Mining Company, and Metinvest Group enterprises

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LLC KRYVBAS ECOTECHNOLOGIES has agreed on a partnership with the Scientific Research Mining Institute of Kryvyi Rih National University (SRMI KNU), Rudomain LLC, the Ukrainian Mining Company, and enterprises of the Metinvest Group. The cooperation covers joint research into the processing and utilisation of mining and metallurgical complex waste – both within international Horizon Europe projects and under initiative-based research topics.

A scientific foundation with more than three decades of history

The partnership builds on SRMI KNU’s long-standing scientific work in the field of mining and metallurgical waste management. As far back as 1994, an institute team completed a thorough research project, “Study of Mining and Metallurgical Complex Waste and Development of Utilisation Methods”, which systematically assessed for the first time the volumes of waste generated by the Kryvbas ore-mining and processing plants, classified it by type of source material, and established the content of valuable components (gallium, nickel, chromium, boron, aluminium, zinc, cobalt, and others) in the sludge and slag of Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises.

For LLC KRYVBAS ECOTECHNOLOGIES, joining this cooperation is an opportunity to integrate a time-tested scientific approach into its own practical work on processing and utilising industrial waste across the region.

Areas of cooperation

Under the partnership, the parties have agreed to work together in the following areas:

  • studying tailings storage facilities and waste dumps as technogenic deposits with a view to the further recovery of iron, scandium, rare-earth elements, and other valuable components;
  • developing and trialling technologies for utilising metallurgical sludge and slag;
  • geophysical monitoring of rock-mass stability at active and decommissioned facilities of partner enterprises;
  • preparing joint applications for Horizon Europe calls and other international research-funding instruments in the field of the circular economy and responsible subsoil use;
  • deploying the results of SRMI KNU’s initiative-based research topics at partners’ production sites, including those of LLC KRYVBAS ECOTECHNOLOGIES.

Company comment

“Kryvbas has accumulated billions of tonnes of technogenic raw material in the tailings storage facilities and waste dumps of the mining and metallurgical complex. We are convinced that part of this material can, and should, be turned into an economically and environmentally justified resource. Combining SRMI KNU’s scientific potential with the practical experience of our company and industry partners – Rudomain, the Ukrainian Mining Company, and Metinvest enterprises – will help accelerate the deployment of waste-processing technologies and contribute to the circular economy and environmental recovery of the Kryvbas region,” said the management of LLC KRYVBAS ECOTECHNOLOGIES.

Outlook

The partnership opens the way for LLC KRYVBAS ECOTECHNOLOGIES to take part in joint research projects, in particular on recovering critical raw materials from Kryvbas’s technogenic deposits, developing low-waste technologies, and restoring territories disturbed by mining operations. The company regards this cooperation as a strategic step towards scaling up its own industrial-waste processing activities and taking part in international Horizon Europe projects.