AI is Helping Find New Diamond Deposits
April 15, 24
(IDEX Online) - Botswana Diamonds (BOD) is now using artificial intelligence (AI) to help locate new diamond deposits.
The UK-based explorer says the technology will allow it to apply human-like understanding to vast amounts of data.
It has developed "mineral prospectivity technology" called Xplore in a collaboration with UK-based International Geoscience Services Limited.
"Our mineral database in Botswana is simply vast. Too big for timely analysis by humans," said BOD chairman John Teeling.
The company says it has the second largest diamond exploration database in Botswana, comprising 380 gigabyte of data and 260,000 files.
It covers around 95,000 sq km of data and 375,000 km airborne geophysical data, 606 ground geophysical surveys, approximately 228,000 soil sample results and32,000 drill hole logs.
Xplore combines semantic technology with machine learning to comprehend, interpret, and reason with data in a manner similar to human understanding.
"The system acts much like a geologist but can function quicker and more efficiently," said BOD in a statement.
"Vast data-sets are processed though AI that finds logical gaps in the data and learns to correct them. This exercise is expected to yield fresh insights that will offer drillable targets previously unseen."
The technology can also identify other mineral deposits.
File pic shows a BOD exploration at Thorny River, South Africa.