The Evolution of Intelligent Systems in the Mining Industry

This paper reviews the evolution of computer systems based on the so-called "intelligent" technologies now being applied in different application areas throughout the mining, minerals, and materials industries. These systems have emerged from the field of "Artificial Intelligence" in which expert systems, fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, and agent-based software have dominated. The Mining industry has been particularly receptive to these methods since so many of our operations and processes are understood and controlled in empirical ways that lend themselves well to the use of intelligent technologies. In addition there are few industries with the myriad of heuristics evident in mining; for example: Nature does not make uniform orebodies nor ones that can be modeled simply; Unit operations tend to be batch or semi-continuous which are more difficult to