Veracio
Boart Longyear’s Arm for Improved AI Assistive Mining

The mining space is going through significant changes as environmental and sustainability governance (ESG) goals and vehicular automation come into play at excavation sites. The demand for cleaner and safer operations continues to rise amid a scarcity of minerals such as copper. At this juncture, with even large mining corporations reporting a deficit from their usual production load, it critical for these companies to rethink strategies for finding and excavating minerals.

“Our focus is on extracting information through digital sensing that will allow a higher density understanding of an orebody and its surroundings, so our clients can make the best of their aging and new mines,” says Mike Ravella, CIO at Veracio.

A key member of Boart Longyear’s geological data services (GDS) division, Ravella is the mastermind behind the development of various digital sensing platform environments that enable direct verification of samples from drill rigs. The designs have empowered mining companies across the world to use data captured on site, rather than waiting months for orebody definition results to arrive from a geology lab. The main challenge for an expert during orebody analysis is to find a seamless way to combine these sensing environments to further apply AI and unlock orebody knowledge for a client.

On that front, Boart Longyear, a major company in the mining and exploration drilling sector, recently announced its GDS division is now an independent company—Veracio. This new company will use AI and advanced data analytics to bring the solutions of tomorrow, today. The team believes the underlying layer of Boart Longyear’s data acquisition capabilities is the missing link to using AI effectively in unifying orebody knowledge for a mining client.

Focusing on solving problems with digital sensing and AI, Veracio is at the forefront of empowering mining clients to understand orebodies faster, and moving from discovery to ore production at much higher quality and quicker time frames.

Braving a New Front

At Veracio’s helm is its newly appointed CEO, JT Clark, a former mining solutions operative at Boston Consulting Group. He has unparalleled experience in using AI to complete optimization efforts at mines and ore processing plants. The solutions enable mining companies to easily read set points for all the pieces of equipment within a facility. While AI in general could handle the complexity of the machinery, the struggle was the insufficient granularity in the orebody to be able to feed a solution to leverage the power of AI and advanced analytics.

While employed with BCG, Clark became aware of the potential of Boart Longyear's orebody knowledge acquisition system and joined Veracio to help bring solutions to market that could accurately and thoroughly address problems.

“I came to Veracio to build upon its suite of technologies that will allow integration of in-depth and accurate orebody knowledge for use with AI,” says Clark.

The mission is to apply AI and advanced analytics to build smarter mines with better data, and help clients achieve higher production with a smaller environmental footprint.

From a safety perspective, Veracio will look to embed AI assistive computer vision to identify unsafe working conditions. It plans to automate activities usually performed by humans, and reduce employee exposure to tasks that have a safety risk component.

While Boart Longyear uses its technology to ease the load of drilling at a mine, Veracio will take the hardware and software a step further and help resource teams with improved data acquisition and timely processing. Data captured from sensors and XRF photography images are augmented by AI for orebody scientists to gain a vivid sense of the core while creating a log entry. Geologists using multiple data sources can rely less on human observation to verify surface texture, color, and other lithological or structural features, making identification much easier.

“Our approach is to allow experts to access AI assist support tools to execute and improve the quality of their operations, and reduce the time spent on lower value tasks,” states Clark.

Core Orebody Information Acquisition

TruScan, Veracio’s flagship platform, is an award-winning technology that geologists can use to derive elemental geochemistry and heterogeneity information about orebodies and structural logging capabilities the same day a hole is drilled. The application allows miners to understand every detail of the structural environment they are drilling and make decisions on continuing or stopping and moving to the next drill point. Integration of the data into a software environment also enables for real-time updates in their orebody modeling, and enhances the allocation of drilling dollars through better decision-making.

Veracio hopes to redefine the way resource geologists define orebodies to make the most out of a site. Since time is of the essence in mining, it liberates geologists, geotechnical engineers, and resource teams to gather as much data as possible from minimal samples.

“At a time when the mining industry is facing hardships in acquiring and retaining a workforce, our solutions will enable them to stay connected and perform their best work in orebody definition,” says Dave Yeates, head of global brand and marketing at Veracio.

Along with its signature contained sample scanning platform, TruScan, Veracio provides a down hole platform, TruProbe, and a rig sensing platform, TruSub. TruScan’s latest feature is the improved on-site QA/QC of excavated orebody assays, complete with images analyzed by AI. To further enhance orebody knowledge, the down hole tool is a north-facing azimuth that allows a mining company to maintain safety by allowing their staff to automatically measure azimuth dip and depth. An on-drill add-on, TruSub allows users to detect drill behavior while it is boring into a rock. Combined, these hardware platforms empower orebody scientists to gather more relevant and better-quality data that ensure better work and decision-making efficiency.

Digging deeper into data, Veracio also has software platforms, TruStructure and AutoLogger, which are used to create a unified orebody knowledge base in the cloud. At the tip of the spear for every mining decision, significant orebody information can improve mining operations and reduce the carbon footprint and impact on local communities. Going down the road of pre-concentration or ore sorting means smaller tailing dams, less dust, and lower power consumption, helping miners remain on track with their ESG goals.

Fusing science and technology to amplify mining operations, Veracio is hiring UX designers, engineers, and geoscientific PhDs to further enhance its products and position as a mining technology company. In the quest to step up its game, the firm is increasing its attention around a client’s carbon footprint, and how decisions backed by orebody science can have a profound impact on ESG.

Keeping in mind the changes mines are going through, Veracio will shed a new light on what is more relevant to a mine operating at full capacity in finding and excavating critical metals and minerals. With dwindling numbers in ore count, it believes AI is the glue that holds all the missing pieces in data acquisition together. It is planning on investing heavily in building cutting-edge capabilities that miners will need today, tomorrow, and in the years to come. Heading toward the future, Veracio will launch more AI assist products to inform and support human expertise in orebody definition that is required in challenging exploration and production environments.