Sandra Lorenz WiMLDS Dresden, 17 March 2021

1. Helmholtz-Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology · Department of Exploration · Dr. Sandra Lorenz · s.lorenz@hzdr.de · www.hzdr.de
The role of data science and machine learning to achieve
sustainable mineral exploration

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@ EU 2020

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Challenges
▪ Cost
▪ Timing
▪ Invasiveness
▪ Acceptance
▪ Accessibility
▪ Safety
▪ Scale Gap
CONVENTIONAL MINERAL EXPLORATION
Photo: Moritz Kirsch
Lorenz 2019

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E.g.,
Spectral Imaging
for surface mapping
of material
characteristics
▪ non-invasive
▪ versatile
▪ rapid
▪ multi-scale
▪ multi-view
NON-INVASIVE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGY
Lorenz 2019
Photos: HZDR-HIF

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SPECTRAL IMAGING FOR RESOURCE CHARACTERIZATION
Lorenz 2019

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SPECTRAL IMAGING FOR RESOURCE CHARACTERIZATION
Lorenz 2019, Booysen et al. 2021

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200
mm
HYPERSPECTRAL DRILL CORE MAPPING
Photos: HZDR-HIF

10. MULTI-SENSOR
APPROACH
200
mm

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CLASSIFICATION
Lorenz et al., 2021

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MINERAL FEATURE MAPPING

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AUTOMATED REAL-TIME PROCESSING

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AUTOMATED REAL-TIME PROCESSING

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DIGITAL
OUTCROPS
AND
OPEN
MINE
PIT
MAPPING Photos: M. Kirsch

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2D image space vs. 3D point cloud space
THE NEED FOR MULTIMODAL 3D PROCESSING
3D MULTIMODAL POINT
CLOUD
The world is 3D, so AI should see it in 3D too!
❖ major advances in image
processing and AI (feature
extraction, denoising,
classification, ...)
❖ distorted spatial relations
❖ occlusions
❖ joining spatial features (shape,
texture) with multimodal data
characteristics (spectra, ..)
❖ object detection and segmentation
❖ limited AI implementation for
monomodal point clouds (3D-
CNN, PointNet)
2D SPECTRAL IMAGING

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Thiele et al. 2021
(under rev.)
CLASSIFICATION OF MULTIMODAL 3D DATA

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DRONE-BORNE HIGH-
RESOLUTION MAPPING OF
REMOTE, INACCESSIBLE
AREAS
Jakob et al., 2017
Photos: HZDR-HIF

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(offset
for
clarity)
wavelength (nm)
raw
corrected
with topographic
correction
uncorrected
GEOMETRIC CORRECTION
RADIOMETRIC CORRECTION
COMPLEX
DATA
CORRECTIONS
Lorenz 2019

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DRONE-BORNE HIGH-RESOLUTION MAPPING
OF RARE EARTH ELEMENTS Booysen et al., 2021

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DRONE-BORNE ENVIRONMENTAL
MONITORING
e.g., mapping of Acid Mine Drainage
Flores et al., 2021
50 mm

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OUTLOOK: AUTONOMOUS DRONE
SWARMS

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✓ Enhance worker safety by autonomous
processes
✓ Reduce mapping costs
✓ Reduce drilling
✓ Enhance mapping accuracy, speed and
coverage
✓ Reduce waste and ore processing effort by
better preselection
✓ Environmental impact monitoring
AI-BOOSTED NON-INVASIVE EXPLORATION
TECHNOLOGY

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THANK YOU!