Chilean miners seen to be wary of AI and digital twins technology

While data analytics and digital twins technology have multiple advantages for mining companies, lack of knowledge and low budgets are hindering broad implementation in the industry in Chile.

“I see great interest in almost all [Chilean] companies, but I also see a lack of knowledge,” Altair Chile head Ottmar Kappes told BNamericas. "What is most required is people with vision," he added.

Altair offers data analytics, machine learning and digital twin services.

Kappes also said companies and universities must step up research to create a knowledge base to enable these technologies. Altair collaborates with five Chilean universities that use its systems for teaching.

“I believe there is knowledge, but I see that in some companies they have engineers doing many different tasks and [for these projects] it is much better if they focus 100% on one or two engineers,” he said.

“The second point that I see is that [these technologies] require strong investment and not all companies are willing to invest that much. Mining companies want to invest, and are doing so, but other small providers are still not seeing the benefit of these technologies,” according to Kappes.

In Chile, 15 clients – one a mining company and the others providers – are using Altair technologies to predict and avoid failures. “Mining faces many challenges. One of them is the unplanned interruption of the operation that causes millions in losses,” he said.

Apart from using analytics and machine learning to gain insights from teams, Altair launched a software to simulate industrial solids and granules.

Altair offers the technology and consultancy for implementation. The company has one office in São Paulo and one in Mexico City, and 20 distributors in the region, three in Chile.