Latest news: AI in the mining industry 

Since ChatGPT’s release in November 2022, generative AI has entered public discourse across the world. According to GlobalData, over a million social media posts about artificial intelligence (AI) have been made across Twitter and Reddit in the last year.  

The Future of Life Institute’s open letter to pause AI development led to multiple major news outlets publishing features on the existential threat that AI could pose to humanity. ChatGPT’s instant internet virality is possibly its biggest benefit to the tech industry so far.  

Generative AI has been rolled out to provide customer relationship management solutions, software development and even storytelling. But some sceptics cannot ignore that the timing of generative AI’s hype is fortuitous for the tech industry.  

Managing director at TS Lombard, Dario Perkins, explains in a recent webinar that big technology companies are “the part of the stock market that suffered the largest declines as central banks started aggressively raising interest rates”. 

Perkins also attributes the “drying up” of tech investment to the closure of several banks with close ties to the tech sector, such as Silicon Valley Bank, and describes ChatGPT’s public release as “very clever marketing”.  

With the metaverse winter closing in and quantum computing funding slowing down due to an emerging lack of practical uses, generative AI instead began experiencing a funding frenzy whilst funding in AI overall dropped. On 13 June, French company Mistral AI broke the European record for a seed round funding, receiving a total of $260m in four weeks.  

AI has also boosted hiring for tech companies who Perkins notes were seeing “fairly big job losses in contrast to other sectors- in contrast to other sectors who were still looking to add jobs”. GlobalData research consolidates that the tech sector’s hiring in generative AI increased approximately 600% from March 2023 to June 2023.

Lockdowns and social distancing measures induced by the Covid-19 pandemic saw global acceleration towards automated processes across almost all industries. In particular, automation in the mining and metals sector has been hailed by companies as central to safety and productivity improvements, as well as profit increases.  

As one of the biggest mineral producers in the world, Australia’s mines are automating fast to keep up with internal and external competition. The country already boasts the largest population of autonomous mining trucks by some way; in 2022, it had a fleet of 706, up from 561 in 2021. This is four times more than Canada, who holds second spot with 177 trucks in 2022, with China sitting in third with 69.   

Physical, or operational (OT), automation, such as driverless trucks and equipment, comes hand-in-hand with IT automation, which involves automated software processes and AI programming. Recent developments in both OT and IT automation have driven advances in mining production and efficiency, but questions remain as to how this will affect the mining workforce in the long-term.  

A mixed fleet united

In January, Epiroc and ASI Mining announced the completion of a new autonomous haul truck solution for iron miner Roy Hill’s mixed fleet of 96 haul trucks. The new technology, now ready to commercialise after a two-year testing phase, is significant because it is interoperable and scalable regardless, leaving the technology ’equipment manufacturer agnostic‘.  

In theory, any company will be able to use it, removing the need for mining companies to commit to a single truck manufacturer for years, or even decades.  

Eventually, the technology will be used to convert Roy Hill’s fleet of 96 trucks to driverless operation. Ten haul trucks have already been converted using on-board automation systems to navigate the mine’s virtual map and communicate with other vehicles and with a remote operations centre over 2,000km away in Perth.  

According to Epiroc, the test fleet is meeting “desired safety metrics”. It is also hitting higher productivity targets than conventional manned trucks. The fleet works tirelessly, making them more efficient than vehicles operated by human workers, who need to take breaks. Autonomy replaces, as Rio Tinto put it in an explanation of its autonomous Gudai-Darri mine, the “weary driver”.

Artificial intelligence was one of the most frequently referenced themes in Q2 2023, ranking highest in terms of mentions, ahead of advanced materials and low-cost evolution, according to GlobalData.

Of the top leading companies in the mining industry, ABB had the greatest increase in references for artificial intelligence in Q2 2023, compared with the previous quarter. GlobalData identified 18 artificial intelligence-related sentences in the company's filings - 6% of all sentences - compared with the company’s Q2 2022 filings, which did not mention AI. Similarly, CNH Industrial’s filings mentioned of artificial intelligence six times while Caterpillar mentioned AI five times, both rising from zero one year before.

GlobalData’s Company Filings Analytics also applies sentiment weight to reference sentences, based on whether the sentences are positive, negative, or neutral. Starting at 100 in 2020, an index over 100 is more positive. The overall index for artificial intelligence in Q2 2023 was 117.