Business

Botswana Diamonds to use AI in search for new deposits

Technology could also uncover other mineral deposits

Botswana Diamonds is planning to use AI to help find new deposits. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Ciara O'Brien
Tue Apr 9 2024 - 07:53

Irish explorer Botswana Diamonds is to use artificial intellegience to help search for new diamond deposits, the company said.

The London-listed company said it will apply the technology to its database, the second largest diamond exploration database in Botswana, to assist in the search.

It plans to use Planetary AI’s Xplore mineral prospectivity technology, which combines machine learning with semantic technology, which focuses on understanding and representing the meaning of data and knowledge in a machine-readable format. This allows the machines to function similar to a geologist in understanding the meaning and context of geological data, identifying zones of prospective mineralisation based on specific mineral deposit models, but much more quickly and efficiently.

“Our mineral database in Botswana is simply vast. Too big for timely analysis by humans. Think of it, over 375,000 kms of geophysical data, and 32,000 drill holes logs,” said chairman John Teeling.

READ MORE

“Massive databases are suited to analysis by computer-based large data models and artificial intelligence techniques which can analyse substantial amounts of data in a short time. We feed in the data and create the models from our existing knowledge both theoretical and factual. The techniques then produce results. Where it finds inconsistencies or gaps it adapts. It is early stages in both our work and the use of the technique in mineral exploration, but the future potential is huge.”

The system will analyse a number of different minerals and could lead to the identification of other deposits.

“We have always believed that there are more diamond deposits to be found under the sand,” Mr Teeling said. “Now there is the possibility of other deposits being identified.”

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien

Ciara O'Brien is an Irish Times business and technology journalist

LATEST STORIES