XVI SIMPOSIO: BHP Proposes Democratizing Artificial Intelligence to Increase Productivity and Capital Efficiency in Mining
- Iván López, VP Value Engineering at BHP, pointed out that the technological transformation of the mining sector requires combining artificial intelligence, digital twins, machine learning, reinforcement learning, and systems thinking to test scenarios, optimize investments, and improve capital productivity.
Lima, May 28, 2026. Artificial intelligence must be democratized within organizations so that teams can make better decisions, test scenarios, and increase capital productivity in highly complex industries such as mining. This was the message from Iván López, VP of Value Engineering at BHP, during his presentation “Unlocking Capital Efficiency: A Systems Thinking Approach to Artificial Intelligence and Digital Twin Deployment.”
“Writing code or handling advanced models requires specialized knowledge and expertise; therefore, companies must build systems that allow more professionals to interact with technology through natural language,” he said at the SIMPOSIO– XVI International Mining Meeting, organized by the National Society of Mining, Petroleum and Energy (SNMPE).
López commented that at BHP, they have developed systems that allow professionals without programming skills to use natural language to propose scenarios, analyze data, evaluate trade-offs, and generate executive summaries.
He explained that they have been applying artificial intelligence, digital twins, systems dynamics, and systems thinking not only to understand operations but also to anticipate scenarios, test design alternatives, improve investment decisions, and reduce cost overruns related to project complexity.
The executive explained that one of the main challenges in the mining industry is that projects typically start with a basic design. As they mature, they often incorporate additional redundancies, capacity margins, contingencies, and scope changes. These decisions can increase complexity, extend timelines, and raise capital intensity.
“We use concepts from digital twins, systems dynamics, and artificial intelligence,” said López. He explained that these tools enable them to analyze design options, operating assumptions, equipment reliability, operating rules, bottlenecks, and alternatives to defer or avoid unnecessary investments.
Multidisciplinary teams
López also highlighted that digital transformation in mining requires multidisciplinary teams, not just traditional industry specialists. He noted that BHP works with professionals from diverse industries and disciplines, such as astronomy, cybersecurity, logistics, and data science, to translate complex physical problems into mathematical models and apply the most appropriate knowledge to each challenge.
In that context, he indicated that his team consists of approximately 90 people from 29 nationalities, distributed across Australia, Chile, and Canada, and that 47% are women. For López, this diversity enables the incorporation of capabilities that other industries have already developed to tackle mathematical problems that are even more complex than those encountered in mining.
Finally, López emphasized that the mining industry has a concrete opportunity to use artificial intelligence not only as a technological tool, but as a new way of making business decisions, improving capital efficiency, and accelerating value creation in strategic projects.
Photos are available at the following link: https://flickr.com/photos/195630249@N08
