But next step from remotely controlled trains and trucks are the...

But next step from remotely controlled trains and trucks are the remotely located geologists ....
Perhaps someday the drivers and the geologists will be collated  into the empty office next door to  Telstra headquarters in the Phillipines?

OZ Minerals, Unearthed to crowdsource drill target for Prominent Hill mine

The West Australian
Friday, 7 December 2018 11:13AMPeter Milne

OZ Minerals’ Prominent Hill copper-gold mine in South AustraliaPicture: Supplied
One million dollars is on offer for those who best help OZ Minerals decide where to drill next year near its Prominent Hill copper-gold mine.

OZ Minerals chief executive Andrew Cole said the company wanted to crowdsource solutions from the world’s leading data scientists and geologists.

"This gives us potential access to thousands of scientists’ ideas and data, compared to our relatively small team of in-house geologists – a different and diverse perspective to interpret our exploration data,” he said.



The Adelaide-based miner and Perth’s resources technology promoter Unearthed will launch the 10-week race in February.

Participants will pore through 5,000 gigabytes of data to locate the most likely areas of economic mineralisation over a 4,200 square kilometre area in South Australia.

Contestants must present their findings, and the winners will share a $1million prize pool.

The top targets identified in the competition will be drilled by OZ next year.

Unearthed director Justin Strharsky said mineral exploration was difficult, and economic mineral deposits are rare.

"During the exploration process, the iterative process of collecting different datasets, followed by geological interpretation, can take a very long time,” he said.

"The Explorer Challenge will speed up the exploration lifecycle and allow us to analyse information at a much faster rate than before.”

Mr Strharsky said companies needed to use people with different skills and perspectives from around the world.

“If your approach to digital skills is to hire people who happen to live near your HQ on the basis of a CV or a degree from a school you recognise, you’re doing it wrong," he said.

https://thewest.com.au/business/min...target-for-prominent-hill-mine-ng-b881043565z