Technical Conferences
The AMT organizes annual technical conferences with a strong industry focus!
The biennial Smart Mining Conference (SMC) focuses on the digitalization of mining. It offers national and international technology providers the opportunity to present the latest developments in Mining 4.0 and discuss them with an expert audience. Since its launch in 2015, SMC has become an important industry meeting place. More information is available on the conference homepage
The biennial High-Performance Mining Conference (HPM), which takes place in alternate years, addresses a deliberately international expert audience to discuss conditions and opportunities for productivity increases in modern high-performance mining and to present best-practice examples of high-performance mining. More information is available on the conference homepage
The Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies at RWTH Aachen University, together with DMT GmbH und Co. KG and VDMA Mining, presented the new edition of the "Forum Mining 4.0" for the first time in 2019 with the "Smart Mining Conference". Around 200 participants gathered in Aachen for the kick-off.
In 2021, the Smart Mining Conference took place digitally for the first time on November 17 and 18 and presented innovative solutions from the areas of "Smart Operations Management," "Smart Decarbonization Strategies," "Smart Work" and "Smart Collaboration and Trust." Two panel discussions addressed cross-cutting issues such as the role of women in the African mining sector and success factors of international collaboration. More information on SMC 2021 can be found here: www.smartmining.info.
The Smart Mining Conference (SMC) is held alternately with the International Conference on High-Performance Mining (HPM). The aim of the conference is to bring together international mining companies, suppliers and experts from research and industry to discuss current trends and developments as well as new applications and opportunities in the field of automation and digitalization of mining processes and machines.
The International Conference on High-Performance Mining takes place every two years, alternating with the Smart Mining Conference, and is organized by the Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies (AMT) and supported by VDMA Mining as co-organizer.
The inaugural event in 2018 attracted around 180 participants from a good 20 countries to the SuperC in Aachen; in 2020, the conference was held digitally for the first time and also attracted around 190 international guests in the online format. Thematically, the 2020 HPM conference was divided into the topics: "The Autonomous Mine", "The Green Mine" and "The People's Mine", supplemented by a "South America Day", which presented best practices from South America on the first conference day.
The target group of the conference is the national and international mining industry as well as representatives from science, politics and associations who want to discuss success factors for high-performance mining and learn from and be inspired by international benchmark projects. The focus is on the exchange between the supplier industry and international mining companies as well as between research and practice. Mining companies in particular appreciated the non-commercial intent of the conference, which is designed to promote a deeper exchange on relevant trends and technologies to move the industry forward.
The aim of the conference is to provide comprehensive insights into international transformation and innovation processes based on an integrated approach to the consideration of people, technology and the environment, as well as to inspire participants to make further changes in modern mining by highlighting success factors and challenges, and to show that sustainable and at the same time economically successful modern high-performance mining is not a pipe dream but a possible reality.
Predecessor Events
The Smart Mining Conference and the High-Performance Mining Conference evolved from their predecessor events, the "Forum Bergbau 4.0" (2015 and 2017) and the "AKIDA" - Aachen Colloquium for Maintenance, Diagnosis and Plant Monitoring. The Akida was first organized in 1996 by the Institute for Mining and Metallurgical Engineering (IBH), one of the predecessor institutes of the AMT, and dealt with various topics and trends in the fields of plant monitoring & diagnostics in the heavy machinery and raw materials sector.