ANEFA and the transformation of the aggregates industry

It all started in 2019. At that time, the Spanish Association of Aggregates Manufacturers (ANEFA) was preparing a CIEN project on biodiversity, and several companies in the sector were already collaborating regularly with Zabala Innovation. This was the opportunity for the first contact between the business organization representing the Spanish aggregates industry—products that account for 80% of the raw materials consumed in this country—and the consultancy firm.

“I loved the very expert, rigorous, and non-complacent approach of the technicians,” says César Luaces, ANEFA’s General Director. “When you put yourself in the hands of an entity like Zabala Innovation, you are not looking for them to flatter your idea and just take it on to gain a client, but rather to conduct a critical review that identifies potential weaknesses and adds their expert perspective, providing essential value to the idea you have previously developed,” he explains.

The added value offered by the consultancy, Luaces assures, lies in “knowing how to listen and motivate to give the proposal a twist, no matter how good and innovative it is.” What happens, then, if the technicians do not see it clearly, whether due to a lack of maturity in the proposal or consortium, or for any other reason? “They tell you to wait for another occasion or to discard the idea,” he emphasizes. The result is that “a winning symbiotic relationship is generated,” in which Zabala Innovation and its clients “become partners.”

This marked the beginning of a path filled with successes. “In the midst of the pandemic, with all of Spain in lockdown, we approached Zabala Innovation to propose a project on the digitization of the European aggregates industry, DigiEcoQuarry. It was our first H2020 project as promoters and leaders, and we succeeded on the first try,” recalls Luaces. The challenge was enormous: digitizing the entire production process of aggregate quarries, in a context where the extractive industry of these raw materials (the most important in global mining) is mainly composed of SMEs and micro-enterprises, along with some global players.

“We decided to lead this project in the absence of the other European sector associations, who saw it as an impossible challenge. Zabala Innovation helped us make the decision and accompanied us both in presenting the proposal and in the subsequent management of the project, which has the added difficulty of involving a large consortium,” Luaces highlights.

What followed “couldn’t have been better,” in the words of ANEFA’s General Director, as the two projects subsequently presented and selected—Rotate and SCIMIN-CRM, which together received more than 33 million euros in funding—were chosen “with exceptional evaluations by the European Commission.”

Each of the three projects had a different Zabala Innovation team. “And I wouldn’t know which of the three teams we understood better,” says Luaces, delving into the quality of the collaboration with the consultancy: “All the people from Zabala Innovation who helped us draft the proposals, besides being excellently prepared, have enormous work capacity, treat all consortium members exquisitely, even in moments of high pressure to meet deadlines. All this adds great value to their work. And I also highly value the peace of mind they provide by being our companions in the administrative management of the projects once started.”

“Although it’s evident that having a good project idea and a leader with work capacity, criteria, and conviction to carry the initiative forward is essential, no less important are the professionals’ profile, the wide bench strength, and the rigorous and excellent working procedures of Zabala Innovation. And during the life of the project, their administrative coordination allows us to focus on what’s important to us, which is the technical coordination to make it a collective success,” Luaces summarizes. He concludes: “For us, Zabala Innovation is a partner that makes us better.”

The three ANEFA EU projects accompanied by Zabala Innovation

DigiEcoQuarry

Launched in mid-2021 and lasting four years, the DigiEcoQuarry project aims to design, develop, and validate in five pilot environments an innovative quarry system composed of sensors, processes, tools, and methods for capturing, processing, and sharing data to provide integrated, digitized, automatic, real-time process control for aggregate quarries. The project results in improved health and safety conditions for workers; enhanced selectivity and efficiency of aggregate operations, increasing profitability of extraction processes, ensuring long-term operational sustainability and viability; maximization of sustainability and resource efficiency in quarry operations by reducing emissions, improving water management, and promoting a sustainable supply of raw materials; improved social acceptance through communication with policymakers, citizens, and relevant stakeholders. “It has 26 partners from 9 European countries, plus Colombia and South Africa,” says Luaces proudly, from ANEFA.

Rotate

This project, launched in September 2022, aims to achieve the extraction of raw materials with near-zero emissions and pollution, providing new tools for the mining industry on its path to more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable mineral extraction. The solutions proposed by Rotate will reduce the environmental footprint of the entire process, thus addressing the complex challenge of achieving social acceptance and citizen participation. This will promote the creation of critical raw material quarries, boosting the EU’s access to this strategic sector and the development of renewable energies, electric mobility, and defense and space. The Rotate project will conclude in 2026.

SCIMIN-CRM

“The goal of SCIMIN-CRM is to increase both the possibility of utilizing mining materials discarded in the past and the rehabilitation of areas where extractive activity occurred before the implementation of current technology and measures,” explains Luaces. Thus, the project—scheduled to launch in October 2024 and lasting four years—will focus on characterizing, valorizing, recovering, processing, and utilizing unevaluated mining dumps to convert them into recoverable resources. Thanks to SCIMIN-CRM, the usable material quota would increase from around 0% to 5%, while also reducing analysis and evaluation time by 80%. All this makes SCIMIN-CRM a project of great economic and environmental significance, as it will develop tools and processes that contribute to addressing some of the most important challenges facing Europe as a whole. These include dependence on raw materials, the recovery of degraded areas, maximizing resource utilization, and environmental protection while simultaneously increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of processes.