In a small town near Lake Balkhash, a Kazakh gold miner is relying on artificial intelligence to predict when an ore mill is about to overload.
JSC AK Altynalmas teamed up with British tech start-up Intellisense.io, whose software uses sensors built into the plant to form a model of the grinding process and flag problems before they happen. It’s an increasingly valuable feature as the company’s mines produce ore with lower levels of gold, putting additional strain on its processing operations. While slow to adopt AI in comparison with other sectors, the challenges of declining ore grades for metals including copper and gold is pushing more mining companies to take a closer look at technology. Instead of spending more on exploration, start-ups such as Intellisense.io are helping producers to maximize the metal extracted from the mines they already own.