Tag Archives: Artificial Intelligence

Future mining workforce set for substantial change by 2024, Accenture says

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Miners must prepare their workforce today to meet the demands of tomorrow’s digital age, or risk future growth and innovation, according to Gaston Carrion, Talent and Organisation Lead for Accenture’s resources practice in Australia and New Zealand.

Carrion told delegates at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Melbourne, Australia that, as the use of autonomous vehicles and other advanced technologies increases, the profile of the future mining workforce could change by up to 80% by 2024.

“The very concept of work is being redefined due to changing workforce demographics and rapid advancements in technology, and the Australian mining industry is no exception,” Carrion said.

He believes the future mining workforce will be highly connected, as people work in tandem with artificial intelligence (AI) to improve safety, productivity and profitability.

“Based on the current rate of technology adoption, the digital mine is no longer a pipe dream, so it’s crucial that miners review their attraction, development and retention talent approaches,” he said.

“Now, more than ever, mining and metals companies need to look at their future talent needs and establish workforce and technology strategies to ensure they have a robust and appropriately skilled supply of employees.”

Accenture’s recent Reworking the Revolution research further highlights the need for human-machine collaboration and reskilling, according to the company. It found 66% of Australian workers thought the share of roles requiring collaboration with AI would rise in the next three years and only 3% of CEOs planned to significantly increase investment in reskilling their workforce in the next three years.

Carrion outlined three key ways for mining companies to get ahead of the curve to foster this future workforce, centred around attraction, development and retention.

He explained that mining will need new skills in the future, from technologists and data scientists, to partnership managers and improvement specialists.

“Miners must reimagine talent attraction in a battle for the best and brightest. New talent pools should be established, both internal and external, with proactive sourcing key,” he said.

“Diversity should also be a priority for miners, and many companies have committed to fostering a more gender-balanced workforce. Ultimately, a diverse workforce is more engaged and productive, and will allow miners to navigate industry disruption far more effectively.”

Development will also be vital as a workforce strategy, in terms of reskilling programmes, career advancement and organisational culture.

Carrion said reskilling on digital, analytics, process improvement, remote operations and applications of AI is imperative, extending beyond employees and into contractors.

He also detailed the area of retention and stressed its importance, explaining that retention of high performers shouldn’t be an afterthought, and that new leadership can help refresh and empower the existing workforce to embrace innovation quickly.

The IMARC conference and exhibition, taking place this week in Melbourne, Victoria, is developed in collaboration with its founding partners the Victorian State Government of Australia, Austmine, AusIMM and Mines and Money.

Deloitte urges miners to take proactive approach to disruptive technology, cybersecurity

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Professional services company Deloitte today has released two global mining reports to coincide with the opening of the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) in Melbourne, Australia.

The two reports explore cyber risk (An integrated approach to combat cyber risk: securing industrial operations in mining) and human capital trends (Beyond HR: rethinking work and operations in the mining industry) and their impact on the global mining sector.

Deloitte’s National Mining Leader, Ian Sanders said that based on findings from both reports, organisations needed to prepare for the changes that would come with developing future mines.

“Disruptive technologies are prompting massive transformation for mining companies,” Sanders said, adding: “A survey of energy and resources leaders reveals 76% consider artificial intelligence and robotics as critical factors for success but just 31% are ready to adopt the technology.”

The cyber risk report examines how cyber threats are disrupting the mining value chain and outlines approaches companies can take to secure their operations.

“Despite cyber attacks growing in number and sophistication across many industries, the mining industry has been spared in comparison,” Sanders said.

“But as the industry advances towards digitalisation and intelligent mining, it’s becoming more and more important to proactively secure operations against cyber threats.”

Newcrest looks for automation and artificial intelligence boost with TCS collaboration

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Newcrest Mining has signed a collaboration agreement with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation, to create an Innovation and Digital Operations Centre (IDOC) in India.

The IDOC will leverage TCS’ global research and innovation networks to explore opportunities to improve activities across Newcrest’s business including ore processing, techniques for predictive targeting, and leveraging learning from other industries, the gold miner said.

Newcrest will work with TCS experts in engineering, research and development, data analytics and IoT, and process control. The collaboration with TCS will build on Newcrest’s existing digital platforms. This has included numerous big data initiatives including a collaboration with Petra Data Sciences at the Lihir gold mine’s mill in Papua New Guinea.

Sandeep Biswas (pictured), Newcrest Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, said: “We want to enhance and accelerate the way we use automation and artificial intelligence across our business to improve our returns to shareholders. I welcome our new partnership with TCS. It presents an exciting opportunity to leverage TCS’ and Newcrest’s strong track record of innovation.”

Biswas added that TCS would help the company fast track its transformation towards its 2020 aspirations. This includes, by 2020:

  • Zero fatalities and industry-leading total recordable injury frequency rate;
  • First quartile organisational health;
  • First quartile group all-in sustaining costs per ounce;
  • Five “breakthrough successes” in its technology and innovation division by 2020, and;
  • Exposure to five Tier One orebodies (operations, development projects or equity investments).

Debashis Ghosh, President – Energy & Resources at TCS, said: “We are excited to embark upon this innovation and transformation journey with Newcrest, strongly backed by our Business 4.0 framework.

“Our independent agile method provides the foundation for the strategic collaboration with Newcrest, for the design and adoption of innovative digital mining solutions to enable Newcrest’s aspirations.”

Albert Mining AI algorithm finds greenfield gold at Falco’s Horne 5 project

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Falco Resources’ recent artificial intelligence-inspired prospecting work at the Horne 5 gold project in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, has provided an example of how this technology can be successfully leveraged to increase exploration success.

Following the appointment in December 2017 of Albert Mining, a leader in the use of AI, to analyse historical data in the Rouyn-Noranda mining camp using its pattern recognition algorithms, CARDS, Falco has since gone out and followed up on several identified targets.

Falco said the AI software learned the signatures of positive and negative gold and base metals targets and identified new targets with a high discovery potential. Fifty anomalies in gold (15), copper (13), zinc (11) and silver (11) were identified, each of which were grouped into 11 exploration areas.

With only four of these exploration areas investigated, there is already hope that the AI technology could lead to an increase in Horne 5’s 6 Moz gold-equivalent reserve base.

One of the most interesting prospecting is at the Four Corners property, some 20 km from Horne 5, where a new showing was identified near a CARDS target and following field work.

A grab sample, composed of felsic volcanic rock strongly hematised with quartz veinlets and 1-3% pyrite, returned 9.53 g/t Au. From eight additional samples collected on the same 5 m x 10 m outcrop, seven returned grades over 1 g/t Au (ranging from 0.11 g/t Au and 5.07 g/t Au). At about 100 m to the north-northeast in extension of this outcrop, similar rock returned 1.04 g/t Au suggesting continuity of the mineralisation.

Additional field work also occurred on the Four Corners Dubuisson property, located less than 4 km to the southwest of the new showing, along a known regional structure. Grab samples, returning 12.79 g/t Au and 3.10 g/t Au, were collected from an angular mineralised block. The angular shape and size (about 1.5 m) of the block may indicate close proximity of the source, according to Falco.

“These results, on both properties, have highlighted a northeast-southwest structural corridor of great interest for gold. Field exploration work continues along strike between these two new surface showings. Channel sampling of the Four Corners showing is in progress on the surface already exposed,” the company said.

The company plans to carry out mechanical stripping, mapping and more channel sampling in the next weeks after receiving a permit. This should allow for a better geological and structural understanding of the gold distribution and controls, Falco said.

“The excellent results on our greenfield properties are very exciting and promising as they are located in zones of very little historical work and without existing showings,” the company said.

And, while the zones remain open in all directions and the focus will be on the Four Corners sector, Falco has confirmed it will continue follow-up work on other CARDS targets over the next weeks.

“The company is very confident on finding other showings based on the initial success of the methodology and work programme to date,” Falco said.