AI Approaches to Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) in the Mining and Metals Sector Using AutoML and Bayesian Modeling

Abstract

Mining engineers and environmental experts around the world still identify and evaluate environmental risks associated with mining activities using field-based, basic qualitative methods The main objective is to introduce an innovative AI-based approach for the construction of environmental impact assessment (EIA) indexes that statistically reflects and takes into account the relationships between the different environmental factors, finding relevant patterns in the data and minimizing the influence of human bias. For that, an AutoML process developed with Bayesian networks is applied to the construction of an interactive EIA index tool capable of assessing dynamically the potential environmental impacts of a slate mine in Galicia (Spain) surrounded by the Natura 2000 Network. The results obtained show the moderate environmental impact of the whole exploitation; however, the strong need to protect the environmental factors related to surface and subsurface runoff, species or soil degradation was identified, for which the information theory results point to a weight between 6 and 12 times greater than not influential variables.