Global chemicals company BASF and industrial artificial intelligence (AI) company IntelliSense.io have entered into an exclusive partnership to combine mineral processing, ore beneficiation chemistry and industrial AI technology expertise.
The new BASF Intelligent Mine powered by an IntelliSense.io offering that emerges from the partnership will deliver AI solutions combined with BASF’s mineral processing and chemicals expertise to enable mine operations to become more efficient, sustainable and safe.
The AI solutions are based on a hybrid cloud architecture, enabling both onsite and cloud deployments, to help mining industry partners accelerate their digitalisation programmes in their operations.
“In a tough economic climate, the need to focus on mining productivity, within sustainable and remote operational constraints, is driving pressure on operating and capital expenditure budgets and requires innovative solutions with accelerated value delivery,” says IntelliSense.io CEO Sam Bose.
The open, real-time, decision-making platform can be configured, typically within three months, for individual sites, while each mining process, including grinding, flotation and pumping, is supported by an optimisation-as-a-service (OaaS) application, which predicts and simulates future performance and generates process-specific recommendations for insights and optimisation.
Customers can generate efficiency gains throughout the entire mine-to-market value chain as multiple OaaS applications link together.
The tool’s remote access feature allows for 24/7 visibility of a mine’s operational and financial performance, with BASF process experts available to provide real-time support, and a built-in simulation tool can be used to test alternative operating conditions, train staff and run nonintrusive ‘what if’ scenarios.
The partnership combines state-of-the-art AI and decades of ore beneficiation experience into a powerful, fast and easy-to-deploy optimisation platform, says BASF oilfield, chemicals and mining solutions senior VP Damien Caby.
“Efficiency improvements resulting from the first implementations by our joint dedicated team are helping customers accelerate the digital transformation of their mining operations.”
Mineral sands-focused mining company Image Resources, one of the early adopters of the intelligent mine solution, has already experienced promising results from its deployment.
“Image Resources is both excited and optimistic about the potential the BASF Intelligent Mine powered by IntelliSense.io can have to positively impact the accuracy and efficiency of our process control functions to meaningfully improve our bottom line,” says Image Resources MD Patrick Mutz.
“From our experience so far, we are confident it will achieve these results while simplifying and destressing operational decision-making.”
The partnership between BASF and IntelliSense.io ensures mining organisations have a partner that understands both their operational risk as well as new technologies, Bose concludes.