Deep learning implementations in mining applications: a compact critical review

Abstract

Deep learning is a sub-field of artificial intelligence that combines feature engineering and classification in one method. It is a data-driven technique that optimises a predictive model via learning from a large dataset. Digitisation in industry has included acquisition and storage of a variety of large datasets for interpretation and decision making. This has led to the adoption of deep learning in different industries, such as transportation, manufacturing, medicine and agriculture. However, in the mining industry, the adoption and development of new technologies, including deep learning methods, has not progressed at the same rate as in other industries. Nevertheless, in the past 5 years, applications of deep learning have been increasing in the mining research space. Deep learning has been implemented to solve a variety of problems related to mine exploration, ore and metal extraction and reclamation processes. The increased automation adoption in mining provides an avenue for wider application of deep learning as an element within a mine automation framework. This work provides a compact, comprehensive review of deep learning implementations in mining-related applications. The trends of these implementations in terms of years, venues, deep learning network types, tasks and general implementation, categorised by the value chain operations of exploration, extraction and reclamation are outlined. The review enables shortcomings regarding progress within the research context to be highlighted such as the proprietary nature of data, small datasets (tens to thousands of data points) limited to single operations with unique geology, mine design and equipment, lack of large scale publicly available mining related datasets and limited sensor types leading to the majority of applications being image-based analysis. Gaps identified for future research and application includes the usage of a wider range of sensor data, improved understanding of the outputs by mining practitioners, adversarial testing of the deep learning models, development of public datasets covering the extensive range of conditions experienced in mines.