
The mining industry is set to change irrevocably through a suite of AlwaysAI Smart Mining solutions aimed at taking the mine-to-market commodity value chain into the next decade through the power of Vision AI. AlwaysAI seeks to enhance the mining industry’s safety, productivity, and profit worldwide.
In this context, with growing demand worldwide for new kinds of metals, mining companies are facing bigger pressures than ever to improve the efficiency of their processes while keeping their workers safe and mitigating environmental damage. That’s where AlwaysAI is focused on helping mines bring real-time computer vision and better visibility into fundamental mining processes.
According to Marty Beard, co-founder and CEO of AlwaysAI, Vision AI will automate the mining process from digging in the ground to transportation to delivery. Thanks to AlwaysAI’s Smart Mining solutions designed to allow operators to deploy computer vision applications across operations on the fly, operators can maintain operational oversight through real-time insights across all parts of their operations.
Vision AI is said to help detect people and objects in real-time – anything that has long been invisible to miners if not to the rest of the world – finding where the ore is being pulled out of the ground, when and where it is being dropped, when and where that equipment is being used or not being used, and when and where that piece of equipment is being outfitted or not outfitted with personal protective equipment (PPE).
AlwaysAI is partnering with top engineering associations, companies, and mining leaders to enable immediate deployment of its Vision AI solutions in mines. AlwaysAI has partnerships and joint projects with the Instituto de Ingenieros de Minas del Perú and the country’s big mining consortiums, including Alpayana, Antamina, and Buenaventura, for their exploration and engineering departments and on-site operations. Other companies and groups are joining to design dashboards, Augmented Reality features, and more.
According to Carlos Diez Canseco, General Manager of Instituto de Ingenieros de Minas del Perú, data improvements through artificial intelligence allow data scientists to build models that inspect, monitor, or measure the mine-to-market value chain and thus achieve greater productivity, better operational safety, and responsible impact on the environment.
Gerardo Alvear Flores, a senior engineering advisor at the International Atomic Energy Agency and an expert in mining and metallurgy processes, made a convincing case for Vision AI’s role in maximizing the many steps it takes to prepare mineral concentrates from ore. ‘Vision AI will be a game-changer in processing metals materials from ore into a concentrated marketable product,’ says Flores, whose team emphasized the tremendous gains in productivity and profitability that will follow from even minor efficiency improvements. Those small gains can achieve magnified effects throughout the mine-to-market value chain.
Vision AI’s emerging role in the mining industry is a powerful example of artificial intelligence becoming an engine of increased efficiency and profit margins. As mining executives strive to achieve increased efficiency, boost safety, and reduce costs, Vision AI provides the real-time insights they need to succeed at every stage of the mining process.
Moreover, partnerships between AI innovators like alwaysAI and industry stakeholders are signs that mining is pivoting into a collaborative network of human and machine capabilities, in which engineers, mining stakeholders, and technology providers combine to realize AI’s potential in mining.
Moving forward, AI tools will play a significant role in supporting the sustainable growth and competitiveness of the mining industry. The mining sector can tackle challenges to optimize production while upholding responsible mineral extraction and utilization through targeted and appropriate use of AI technologies across various value chains.
Source: CNW Group, Yahoo! Finance March 4, 2024