Automation and AI Technology in Surface Mining With a Brief Introduction to Open-Pit Operations in the Pilbara

Abstract

This survey article provides a synopsis on some of the engineering problems, technological innovations, robotic development and automation efforts encountered in the mining industry-particularly in the Pilbara iron-ore region of Western Australia. The goal is to paint the technology landscape and highlight issues relevant to an engineering audience to raise awareness of AI and automation trends in mining. It assumes the reader has no prior knowledge of mining and builds context gradually through focused discussion and short summaries of common open-pit mining operations. The principal activities that take place may be categorized in terms of resource development, mine-, rail-and port operations. From mineral exploration to ore shipment, there are roughly nine steps in between. These include:

Unsupervised ore/waste classification on open-cut mine faces using close-range hyperspectral data

“…As sensor technology has advanced, so too has research into techniques to support a fully autonomous mining workflow [1]. One such sensor, a hyperspectral camera, is capable of imaging the environment so that the absorption properties of scene constituents can be measured remotely at a high spatial and spectral resolution.…”