There is no question that recent technological advancements in communications, big data and artificial intelligence have changed the world, including the mining industry. In fact, it was technology that made it possible for attendees to meet, virtually, for the 2021 SME Minnesota Conference (April 13-15), which, like so many others, was sidelined from in-person meeting because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 13, Stacey Koon, general manager and Lia Walker, manager-innovation, operational improvement with Freeport-McMoRan delivered the conference keynote address, “Artificial Intelligence (AI), Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Unlock People Power,” via Zoom.
Koon and Walker discussed Freeport-McMoRan’s advanced analytics journey that began in 2008 when the company began to think about its assets collectively and not just as individual sites. The journey began with a company’s last “new” haul truck purchase in 2008 and progressed to the point that Freeport built a platform for advanced and recovery analytics.
