Artificial intelligence solutions for the mining industry through research collaboration

Mining industry

NCC Finland

NCC Finland is part of the EuroCC2 project, which establishes national HPC competence centers in different European countries. NCC Finland's mission is to support and improve the capabilities of Finnish business users to utilize the opportunities of high- performance computing, data analytics and artificial intelligence.Through NCC Finland, companies have access to the computing capacity of the EuroHPC LUMI Supercomputer. NCC Finland is operated by the CSC – IT Center for Science.

Industrial organisations involved: 

Metso is a frontrunner in sustainable technologies, end-to-end solutions and services for the aggregates, minerals processing and metals refining industries globally. The AIMODE project was initiated by Metso, and the research partners include the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI), VTT, Aalto University, Metso’s data visualization system supplier LightningChart, and data analytics company Quva.

The AIMODE research group is led by Simo Särkkä, professor at FCAI and Aalto University. The project manager is Lauri Palva, lecturer at Aalto University, and the lead AI researcher is Joonas Linnosmaa from VTT. Several researchers from Simo Särkkä’s research group at Aalto University and Anssi Laukkanen’s project group at VTT are also involved in the project. FCAI researchers are developing AI methods and applications that LightningChart and Quva will integrate into Metso’s tools.

Technical/scientific Challenge:

Optimizing and visualizing the mining process requires combining physics and data-driven approaches.

The three-year AIMODE collaboration project, funded by Business Finland and starting in 2022, aims to optimize mining industry processes and their real-time monitoring using artificial intelligence, as well as to develop an AI-assisted control system based on industrial data. 


“Mathematical optimization problems, process models, and control systems require efficient calculation – in the mining industry as well as in other sectors. That is why the use of functional calculation systems is part of effective cooperation. The mining industry is a new frontier for us, but in terms of research, it doesn’t matter what materials are moving through the pipes, because process optimization is essentially industry-independent,” explains FCAI professor Simo Särkkä.

Without real data, it is impossible to teach machine learning models and verify optimization models. The research data required for the project has been collected from Metso’s customers’ mines, where operations are monitored using hundreds of sensors, and additional data has been produced using digital twins. Metso already uses advanced operational simulators, or digital twins, to test different conditions and their effects on mining operations before making any actual changes.

Solution:

“Computing programs and machines are used according to each project and computing need. It is important to the customer that we manage the systems that suit their computing needs cost-effectively on their behalf. We utilize the resources of the project members or CSC, depending on the scaling needs. We use desktop computers, local clusters, commercial cloud services, and even CSC’s high-performance computing services,” says Linnosmaa.

As research partners, VTT and Aalto University can use CSC’s national supercomputers Puhti, Mahti, and Allas free of charge in the project and, if necessary, also the capacity of the LUMI supercomputer or the Helmi quantum computer. LUMI is optimized specifically for the development of artificial intelligence models and is one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence development platforms.

“Nowadays, the development of high-throughput simulation models increasingly involves the use of smaller surrogate models to screen and identify parameters for optimization. Researchers often develop their own surrogate models according to the development needs of the project using the tools they consider best, and the knowledge gained is shared smoothly between different researchers,” explains Linnosmaa.

Business impact:

Benefits:

  • Computing programs and machines according to each project and computing need

  • The use of the Geminex digital twin simulation environment used by Metso

  • Collaborative projects benefit everyone involved: valuable references, new projects, new contacts, and new expertise

  • Industry knowledge

Success story # Highlights:

  • Keywords: mining, process optimisation models, computational science

  • Industry Sector: Mining

  • Technology HPC, AI

Photo:@AdobeStock

Contact:

Acknowledgements: This project has received support from Business Finland

EuroHPC LUMI project