The Power of AI
December 19, 24
Mother nature hides her diamonds well . . . and artificial intelligence (AI) is now learning how to find them.
AI processes mountains of existing data in a fraction of the time it would take an army of geologists and other experts, and it makes connections that are simply beyond human imagination.
Botswana Diamonds started using AI just six months ago and says it has already identified seven kimberlite targets - geological anomalies that could indicate the presence of diamonds.
One kimberlite target in particular is "of extremely high interest" and the company is already planning to secure licenses to explore the areas the AI has identified.
AI may not quite be the "magic pill," the company's chairman John Teeling tells IDEX Online this week, but so far he's delighted with the initial results it has provided.
And as far as he's aware, nobody else is using it to explore for diamonds.
"AI is being used in the mining industry but not as far as we know in diamonds," he says. "Bill Gates is using it on a new venture to find copper in Zambia."
Botswana Diamonds set the AI to work on a vast database (over 380 gigabytes) accumulated from Sekaka Diamonds, which was Petra Diamond's exploration vehicle, from its own data, and from African Diamonds its predecessor.
Teeling says they use AI because it's simply not possible to for human brains to do detailed analysis on data covering a vast land mass ofover 375,000km.
It developed "mineral prospectivity technology" called Xplore in a collaboration with UK-based International Geoscience Services Limited.
"At the moment I can't get my head around the vast time and manpower it would take using traditional methods to obtain the results we have, simply massive," he says.
"AI is able to combine data from different sources and times and identify complex trends which most human explorers would miss."
It's especially challenging to locate the so-called "Group 2" kimberlites, a type of igneous rock formation particular to southern Africa that points to the presence of diamonds.
"We are delighted with the initial results," says Teeling. "Seven previously unreported kimberlite anomalies in six months of work.
"These are just anomalies, they may not be kimberlites, they may not contain diamonds, even if they do the grade and quality may not be commercial.
"But that is the way of diamond explorers. It's risky. But Botswana is the best country in which to find high quality diamonds. What is a huge bonus is the fact that we are finding indications of other minerals. This work is only beginning."
It generally takes eight to 12 years from initial discovery of a diamond deposit to the start of commercial operations.
"We were involved in the discovery of the Lucara mine (Karowe) in November 2004. It came on stream in 2012. That was quick due to the help and cooperation of the Botswana authorities," he says.
Exploring for diamonds is a high investment, high risk and (in some cases) high return business.
De Beers CEO Al Cook noted recently that it had invested over $1bn over the last two decades in search of elusive, untapped kimberlites.
But Teeling is excited, and confident, with AI as an ally. As he said last week in a company update: "We are long term believers in the diamond prospectivity of Botswana and these results reinforce the belief. We believe more diamond mines will be discovered in Botswana".
Have a fabulous weekend.