By Simon Johanson
Publication Date: 2026-01-05 00:00:00
The world’s largest mining company is applying artificial intelligence to conveyors, blasting zones, giant ore trucks, rock crushers and safety apps to reduce downtime, eliminate risk and increase its profits by up to $250 million a year.
Perhaps the most explosive use of AI in Australian resources giant BHP’s global operations is the machine learning the company has applied to blasting patterns to break up ore bodies of varying densities at its corner Escondida copper mine in Chile, a site that accounts for about 5 percent of global production of the red metal.
Mine operators typically spend about 10 to 12 weeks drilling ore samples into the bedrock they excavate…
