Australian state turns to crowdsourcing to uncover mineral riches
MELBOURNE – South Australia is putting A$250 000 up for grabs in a crowdsourcing competition to uncover more mineral reserves, as the industry taps expertise from a wide array of disciplines to find new large mineral lodes.
The five-month challenge will make available the state's historic data sets for a region home to BHP Group's huge Olympic Dam copper mine, the government of the Australian state said in a statement.
The competition will kick off on March 2 and run until July 31, it added.
"The competition offers the chance to combine geological expertise with new mathematical, machine learning and artificial intelligence to accelerate mineral discovery in the mineral-rich Gawler Craton," said Justin Strharsky of program facilitators Unearthed.
Australia's minerals mapping sets are among the world's most advanced. Combined with computing developments they have brought a renaissance in exploration in what was considered a mature region with major deposits already all found.
Now miners are increasingly turning to big data to determine what lies "under cover" - the 80 percent of the country that lies obscured by metres of sediment and sand.
Rio Tinto, BHP and Newcrest have all announced significant discoveries in Australia in the past two years.
The crowdsourcing contest is similar to one last year by copper miner Oz Minerals, also in South Australia.
The experiment at Oz Minerals' Mount Woods exploration project drew submissions from more than 60 countries, with the top three winning teams based in Australia and Singapore.
Oz Minerals, which has not announced the results of a first phase of drilling in the December quarter, is to begin a second phase in the second quarter, it said last year.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
SafeQuip is a leading distributor and manufacturer of fire safety solutions, offering a comprehensive range of products designed to meet all...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
