As demand for clean energy technologies like EVs, solar panels, and hydrogen fuel cells rises, so does the need for critical minerals, and AI mining facilitating the extraction by reducing time and cost for sustainable economies.
AI in mining industry, led by major companies, will change traditional mining methods by replacing manual metal discovery with AI-powered efficiency, but how far can this innovation go?
Will it lead to faster, more sustainable extraction, or entirely new ways of sourcing critical minerals?
The Game Changing AI in Mining Sector
AI-powered startups like Earth AI, Kobold Metals, and VerAI are innovating new ways to find and extract metals that power the clean energy transition. For example, Earth AI works with AI-powered mineral discovery software to interpret long-term data that goes back to 50 years. AI in mining exploration helps the company predict smarter the locations of valuable metals with more accuracy.
“We train our AI to learn from failures and successes of decades of hundreds of geologists that explored in the past to make much better predictions for where to look for metals in the future,” said Roman Teslyuk, CEO of Earth AI.
When metals are localized, Earth AI can drill a tennis ball-sized hole to verify AI deposits, with AI applications in mining reducing environmental harm while cutting cost and time by half compared to traditional mining.
Teslyuk gave an example about the annual mine revenues that range from $50 million to $3 billion, according to Mining Data Online.
“We drill down to 2,000 feet and grab a sample of rock that has never seen light, and the metals in that rock, they can build hundreds of millions of electric cars,” Teslyuk said.
Earth AI has made accomplishments in AI in mining especially in its discovery of one of the largest palladium deposits in Australia, through a joint mission with Legacy Minerals. Therefore, the potential of AI in the mining industry is promising especially with the increasing global demand for clean energy.
Final Thoughts
AI in energy and mining is becoming a key rock for a sustainable economy, showing that its use does not have to be necessarily a growing threat. AI in mining exploration is actually making the process faster and cheaper encouraging the clean energy transition.
Accordingly, AI is helping shape a future where both the state and the economy thrive sustainably. This emphasizes the capabilities of AI in shaping industries towards long-term sustainability and economic prosperity. However, concerns arise around the possibility of workers in mining losing their jobs for AI substitution and the question repeats itself, will AI replace human workers in the future?
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