On Mining Platinum and Mining Data: Is data the new Gold?

Abstract

: Data mining comes from mining, that is, the extraction of minerals from the Earth. On the occasion of the retirement of Prof. Nina Thornhill, a pioneer in the are of data mining techniques in the process industries, the authors are exploring the similarities of mining data and mining rock, are establishing the current state of mining data in minerals processing plants and summarizing lessons learnt over the years. Despite advances made, there are still opportunities for research to automate data mining in an industrial context.