Artificial Intelligence Key to Successful Mine Rehabilitation
Over the past 20 years, we have seen the rise in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies significantly transform the mining industry – from exploration and processing to mineral transportation and, more recently, mine rehabilitation.
Research estimates that the Australian market for mine rehabilitation technologies could grow to $3 billion annually by 2040, up from $800 million in annual revenue in 2020.
Miners are required to monitor environmental impacts and rehabilitate vegetation in and around their mine sites. As ESG becomes a bigger priority for investors and stakeholders, companies are doing more to integrate sustainable mining practices and ensure they meet rehabilitation obligations once the mine ceases production.
Conventional, on-ground environmental monitoring methods are slow and inefficient, requiring multiple experts spending several days in the field, only to sample a very small proportion of the land under management.
This is where AI, specifically machine learning, plays a crucial role. What was once an incredibly time consuming and laborious activity has now become fast and efficient.
By adopting advanced technological systems and processes, mining companies have streamlined their operations and optimised production – increasing efficiency, improving safety and, most importantly, reducing their environmental impact.
Software, such as Tyton EI’s end-to-end ecological intelligence platform, allows companies to analyse data more efficiently and effectively, delivering far more comprehensive results than what has previously been achieved.
Comprising of TytonAI, the machine learning classification tool, and TytonEIS, the analytics platform, our software suite has revolutionised ecological monitoring and management.
TytonAI enables whole of site assessment and can identify vegetation lifeforms, genres and species at landscape scale. Working alongside this is TytonEIS, which stores and relates collated datasets to assist environmental management knowledge building.
Our Software as a service (SaaS) version of the TytonAI software, which is launching imminently, will give customers access to our machine learning vegetation “mega-models” that can be applied to a wide range of landscapes and vegetation.
This technology has been a gamechanger for environmental managers working in the mining industry as it leverages easy and accessible machine learning to enable precise ecosystem health monitoring, reduce sampling error and improve data quality.
Top tier miners have already seen the benefits of using the Tyton toolset to capture rehabilitation progress.
Newmont Corporation, the world’s largest gold company, used Tyton’s software to more accurately assess rehabilitation performance across its Telfer mine site in Western Australia and restore natural vegetation.
Similarly, BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are all in various stages of trialling the technology.
As companies realise the true value of AI and its vital role in managing their rehabilitation activity and tackling environmental challenges, we expect further uptake of our software across the natural resource, carbon and biodiversity markets.
Find out more about Tyton EI’s ecological monitoring solutions here.
