America's Biggest Bitcoin Miners Are Pivoting to AI In the face of a profitability crisis, industrial-scale bitcoin miners are transforming their data centers into AI factories. One afternoon in June 2024, I stood up against the fence of a sprawling industrial facility a few miles outside of Corsicana, Texas. Over a metal gate, I watched a bright yellow excavator claw at the dirt and flatbed trucks shuttle to and fro. A hangar-like structure with a gleaming white roof stretched hundreds of meters along the opposite perimeter. The company that owned the plot, Riot Platforms, was busily constructing the world's largest bitcoin mine. A year and a half later, a projected two-thirds of the facility is being repurposed to accommodate AI and high-performance computing (HPC) tasks.

Deep-sea mining would cause "extensive and irreversible" damage to sensitive habitats.NOAA This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. An investigation by conservationists has found evidence that deep-seabed mining of rare minerals could cause "extensive and irreversible" damage to the planet. The report, published on Monday by the international wildlife charity Fauna & Flora, adds to the growing controversy that surrounds proposals to sweep the ocean floor of rare minerals that include cobalt, manganese and nickel. Mining companies want to exploit these deposits--which are crucial to the alternative energy sector--because land supplies are running low, they say.

Most companies struggle to capture the enormous potential of their data. Typically, they launch massive programs that try to meet the needs of every data end user or have individual application-development teams set up customized data pipelines that can’t easily be repurposed. Firms instead need to figure out how to craft data strategies that deliver value in the near term and at the same time lay the foundations for future data use. Successful companies do this by treating data like a commercial product. When a business develops a product, it tries to maximize sales by addressing the needs of as many kinds of customers as possible with it—often by creating a standard offering that can be tailored for different users. A data product works similarly. It delivers a high-quality, easy-to-use set of data that people across an organization can apply to various business challenges. It might, say, provide 360-degree views of customers, of employees, or of a channel. Because they have many applications, data products can generate impressive returns. The customer data product at one large bank, for instance, has nearly 60 use cases, and those applications generate $60 million in incremental revenue and eliminate $40 million in losses annually.

PLEASE NOTE: This is the first generated blog and each new run of the code will be different. This should not be taken as the ground truth. The mining industry has been globalised for many years, with companies operating in multiple countries to maximise production and profits. However, this has led to a number of challenges, including the need to operate in different regulatory environments, manage different labour forces, and navigate different tax systems. Additionally, the volatility of commodity prices has also led to challenges for the industry. Despite these challenges, the mining industry remains a key driver of globalisation, and offers a number of opportunities for companies looking to expand into new markets.

AI in the mining industry can help increase productivity, reduce industrial waste, and enhance machine reliability!

Freeport-McMoRan Inc – often shorthanded as Freeport – closed down 1.83% on Thursday to $31.61 per share, dipping harder than the broader markets. The day's end marked a staggering 27 million trades for the mining company, despite continuing a recent pattern of falling stock prices as seen against the 10-day price average of $35.22. However, stock prices are still up almost 16.5% for the year. Currently, the company is trading with a forward 12-month P/E of 12.65. Freeport-McMoRan is a leading international mining company with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona.

The platform uses geospatial data and satellite imagery to provide data-based applications for mineral exploration and discovery and promises to increase hypothesis testing and the speed of the exploration lifecycle. "Traditionally, remote sensing is carried out by specialists (remote sensing geologists) on behalf of the mineral exploration team. Although they still have a role in supporting the process, the Descartes Labs platform puts the technology into the hands of the exploration geologists who know the project areas the best. By leveraging the data obtained from satellite and airborne imagery, they can accelerate their hypothesis formulation and exploration strategies to find new deposits," James Orsulak, senior director of business and sales at Descartes Labs, told MINING.COM. MDC: Your platform puts emphasis on the data refinery.

Caterpillar's autonomous driving technology, which can be bolted on to existing machines, is helping the U.S. heavy equipment maker mitigate the heavy impact of the coronavirus crisis on sales of its traditional workhorses. With both small and large customers looking to protect their operations from future disruptions, demand has surged for machines that don't require human operators on board. Sales of Caterpillar's autonomous technology for mining operations have been growing at a double-digit percentage clip this year compared with 2019, according to previously unreported internal company data shared with Reuters. Fred Rio, worldwide product manager at Caterpillar's construction digital & technology division, told Reuters that a remote-control technology, which allows users to operate machines from several miles away, would be available for construction sites in January. The company is also working with space agencies to use satellite technology to allow an operator sitting in the United States to remotely communicate with machines on job sites in, say, Africa or elsewhere in the world, he said.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Question: How can a company like Caterpillar CAT.N try to counter a slump in sales of bulldozers and trucks during a pandemic that has made every human a potential disease vector? Caterpillar's autonomous driving technology, which can be bolted on to existing machines, is helping the U.S. heavy equipment maker mitigate the heavy impact of the coronavirus crisis on sales of its traditional workhorses. With both small and large customers looking to protect their operations from future disruptions, demand has surged for machines that don't require human operators on board. Sales of Caterpillar's autonomous technology for mining operations have been growing at a double-digit percentage clip this year compared with 2019, according to previously unreported internal company data shared with Reuters. By contrast, sales of its yellow bulldozers, mining trucks and other equipment have been falling for the past nine months, a trend that's also hit its main rivals including Japan's Komatsu Ltd 6301.T and American player Deere & Co DE.N .

Over the past few decades, the mining industry has been mired in a productivity slump of sorts. On the whole, production efficiency is down and costs are up. Mining companies have naturally looked for ways to turn this around, and digitalization has been one of the chief approaches these companies have followed. Mining companies have a lot of data at their disposal. Sensors are seemingly everywhere in their underground operations. But thus far it has been very hard for mining companies to capitalize on all their data because of the difficulty in making sense of it all.