BHP Uses Most Cutting-Edge Technology to Massively Boost Productivity at World’s Biggest Copper Mine

SHANGHAI, May 31 (SMM) – According to foreign media on May 30, BHP Group said on Tuesday that it has cooperated with Microsoft to improve the recovery rate of Escondida copper mine in Chile by using machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The mine is the largest copper mine in the world.

BHP estimates that global copper production needs to double over the next 30 years to keep up with decarbonisation technologies such as electric vehicles and offshore wind and solar farms.

Finding and building new mines is costly, difficult and can take more than a decade, so miners are looking to use new technologies to get more metal from existing mines and processes.

"We expect the next wave of mining to begin with the application of advanced digital technologies," BHP Chief Technology Officer Laura Tyler said in a company statement.

BHP said that by using real-time data on the processing of ore at the mine, combined with artificial intelligence-based recommendations from Microsoft's Azure platform, operators will be able to adjust variables that affect ore processing and recovery rates.

BHP, the world's largest mining company, is the majority shareholder of Escondida and jointly operates the mine with partners Rio Tinto and Japan's JECO.

Escondida produced more than 1 million mt of copper in the last fiscal year to June.

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