From gun searches to kimberlites: AI makes inroads in Canadian mining

TECHNOLOGY | Explorers hopeful of the speed, deep search power of artificial intelligence

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

An artificial intelligence (AI) executive who co-founded a company searching for concealed weapons is now fronting another firm using similar technology to hunt for hidden mineral deposits.

The company, Montreal-based Windfall Geotek, has worked with explorers such as Canada Nickel (TSXV: CNC; US-OTC: CNIKF), which just landed a pledge from Anglo American (LSE: AAL), and Puma Exploration’s (TSXV: PUMA) Williams Brook gold property in New Brunswick, among other projects.

Dinesh Kandanchatha, chairman and interim CEO, helped start the company Extract One, which scans for hidden weapons at concert venues and other sites using AI technology seeking out anomalies.

Kandanchatha had also worked on scanning patients’ eyes for signs of diabetes using the same concept.

“The foundation of the algorithm was anomaly detection which made a lot of sense in the mining context,” Kandanchatha said in a phone interview. “We have two data models, one for base metals and one for gold and silver.”

AI’s surging importance was shown this month when Microsoft announced it would spend billions to revamp its Bing search engine and Edge browser with AI in a bid to take on Google. And news of the AI chatbot application ChatGPT, which mimics human responses, continues to sweep across marketing and academia.

While chatbots are widely different from the mining industry’s AI efforts, the programming shares the ability to learn with experience. The industry is seeing how AI can not only help in crunching data to find deposits, but cut costs by increasing processing efficiency, upgrading automation and improving safety.

The global mining industry’s investment in AI may be increasing by 10% to 23% a year from US$769 million in 2021, according to London-based GlobalData. Consultant McKinsey & Co. has estimated mining sector investment in AI may realize savings to miners of US$390 million a year by 2035.

“Deep machine learning (DML) has potential to help with explora-