Editor's note
"It is the wind of the valley that blows our red flag...... We are full of infinite hope and are looking for rich mineral deposits for our motherland. ”
Since the launch of the new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic action, the majority of geologists have vigorously carried forward the fine tradition of patriotic dedication, pioneering and innovation, and hard work, sprinkled wisdom and sweat all over the mountains and rivers, and wrote a new chapter of the era for the geological prospecting industry. "China Natural Resources News" has set up a column of "Geological Footprints in Mountains and Rivers" to show the touching deeds of geological figures and teams through a series of reports, and promote a new round of prospecting breakthrough strategic actions to achieve greater results.
Xiao Keyan (second from left) instructs students to carry out field practice at Xiaogushan Mine in Inner Mongolia.
Not long ago, Xiao Keyan, the winner of the 18th Li Siguang Geological Science Award and former deputy chief geologist of the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, newly declared the project of "Strategic Mineral Resources Big Data Comprehensive Information Prediction and Prospecting Exploration Demonstration" passed the review. In the past 40 years, from mathematical geology to digital mineral forecasting, from information-based big data analysis to today's intelligent resource exploration, Xiao Keyan has always been working the needs of the country, fighting at the forefront of digital and intelligent research in China's geological industry, and becoming a representative of this process and a role model for geological scientists.
Ideal: Take "computer + mineral forecasting" as a lifelong career
In 1980, 16-year-old Xiao Keyan was admitted to the Department of Geology of Xiangtan Mining Institute, majoring in coal geology and exploration. If nothing else, his life trajectory will be like many of his college classmates, who graduated into the coal industry and devoted his life to research and practice in coal geology. However, in the early 80s of the 20th century, the wave of reform and opening up swept across the land of China, and the desire for "scientific and technological modernization" flourished. At that time, in Hunan, a major event was happening. On December 22, 1983, China's first "Galaxy" supercomputer, which operates more than 100 million times per second, was launched at the Computer Research Institute of the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha. The influence of the "Milky Way" on the young Xiao Keyan was enormous, and Xiao Keyan, who had an active mind and loved mathematics since childhood, saw a broad application prospect of computers in the field of coalfield mineral resources. At the end of 1983, he delineated two directions for his internship thesis - mineral resource trend analysis and computer applications. What should I do if the school doesn't have a computer? With the support of the school, Xiao Keyan borrowed an imported computer from the 230th Research Institute of the Nuclear Industry (formerly the Changsha Institute of Uranium Geology), which occupied almost the entire house. With this "baby", Xiao Keyan spent a week to analyze the mineral resources of the sedimentary valley of the coalfield in the central Xiangzhong Basin of Hunan Province for five times, and successfully completed the internship thesis. This successful attempt ignited his interest and ambition to study geology with mathematics. Of course, at that time, he didn't know that computer technology would develop rapidly in the future, and he didn't know that he would use this as a starting point to deal with "computer + minerals" for a lifetime. In 1984, Xiao Keyan was admitted to Changchun Institute of Geology for a master's degree in mathematical geology, under the supervision of Professor Wang Shicheng, a famous mathematical geology expert, and continued to study for a doctorate degree in this specialty. Mathematical geology is the use of mathematical analysis and modeling means to study geological problems regularly. However, it is not easy to quantitatively study complex geological phenomena, which not only requires the intersection and integration of multidisciplinary knowledge such as the genesis of mineral deposits, earth exploration information technology, and computers, but also requires a macroscopic scientific vision and creative mathematical calculation ability. In his studies and practice, Xiao Keyan has been exploring the application of multivariate statistical analysis methods, the establishment of composite models of gold-copper anomaly areas, and the prediction of minerals with comprehensive information. Like a sponge, he absorbed his knowledge and experience from lectures, internships, and national and international materials, and eventually settled on his professional direction of mineral forecasting. During his studies at Changchun Institute of Geology, Xiao Keyan showed extraordinary diligence and talent. He has published dozens of papers, far more than the school mandates. During this period, he also participated in the project of "Theory and Methodology of Comprehensive Information Mineral Forecasting" presided over by Professor Wang Shicheng, and won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award. At the end of 1991, shortly after Dr. Xiao Keyan graduated, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) began to recruit postdoctoral fellows. For his dream, he came to Wuhan and became a postdoctoral fellow at the "Mineral Survey and Exploration" Research Station of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), under the tutelage of Zhao Pengda, a famous mathematical geologist in mainland China, to further deepen the research and application of mathematical geology. After leaving the postdoctoral fellowship in 1993, Xiao Keyan, who had been promoted to associate researcher, came to work in the Metallogenic Prospect Zoning Research Laboratory (hereinafter referred to as the "Regional Planning Office") of the Institute of Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the "Institute of Natural Resources").
Until now, Xiao Keyan is very grateful for his "luck", not only can he learn from the two masters in the field of mathematical geology, who are known as the "King of the South Zhao and the North", but also find the most suitable professional job in China's top scientific research institutes of mineral resources. Of course, this luck is not accidental, but the result of his original intention and unremitting efforts.
Mission: "Metallogenic Zoning", → "Potential Evaluation" → "Deep Prediction"
When he set foot on the job, it was in the 90s of the 20th century, and the national geological work fell into a low period, but Xiao Keyan's "good luck" did not leave him. As soon as he came to the Institute of Natural Resources, he caught up with a big project - the second round of national metallogenic zoning work, in which he was engaged in the computerization of metallogenic prospect zoning and GIS application research. Coincidentally, Xiao Keyan participated in part of the first round of metallogenic prospect zoning in the country during his undergraduate and master's degrees. The project was led by Chen Yuchuan, then president of the Chinese Academy of Geology and Geosciences and chief engineer of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources. At this time, after decades of prospecting, many areas have entered the stage of prediction and evaluation of hidden deposits and blind deposits, and it is difficult to prospect, so it is necessary to screen out the key areas with good metallogenic prospects to form a breakthrough in prospecting of "point-to-area, point-to-surface combination". At the same time, the geological science and technology and metallogenic theory at that time had made significant progress compared with before the reform and opening up, and it was urgent to use new theories and new technologies to comprehensively study the latest data to guide prospecting. Therefore, in the second round of metallogenic zoning work, Xiao Keyan, as the main backbone, led the team to gradually establish a metallogenic series theory as the guide, Based on the comprehensive information mineral prediction method system supported by GIS computer technology, the comparative study of mineral resources methodology of different scales was carried out, the comprehensive interpretation model of prediction base map compilation was proposed, the research content and method of comprehensive information prospecting evaluation model were improved, the first series map of mineral metallogenic in China and the deployment map of cross-century prospecting work were compiled, and the national metallogenic prospecting area database was established. In 1996, Xiao Keyan was exceptionally promoted to researcher, and in 1997, he became the chief engineer of the regional planning office of the Institute of Natural Resources, and in 2000, he was appointed as the director of the regional planning office. In 2006, the former Ministry of Land and Resources deployed the national survey of mineral resources potential evaluation. This time, Xiao Keyan, as the leader of the discipline, became the general manager of the "National Important Minerals Total Forecast" project without any suspense. From 2006 to 2013, Xiao Keyan was full of "clockwork", aiming at the goal and task of "total forecasting", and created the mineral prediction method of comprehensive geological information of ore deposit model; developed the prediction model of systematic prediction and comprehensive information prediction by geological experts, summarized the prediction method process of estimating resource potential by means of computer information technology and using the geological parameter method of ore deposit model; for the first time, put forward a comprehensive interpretation model for regional prediction comprehensive information mapping, mineral prediction types, mineral prediction method types, The concept of minimum prediction area has innovated and developed the estimation method of geological parameters and resources of ore deposit model, and established a database of prediction and evaluation results of national mineral resource potential, which provides authoritative national data for national resource decision-making. These achievements have promoted the development of geological work in line with the times: it has been widely used in the planning and deployment of various mineral exploration in the 13th Five-Year Plan of the mainland, determined 26 important prospecting deployment areas in the mainland, and selected more than 110 national important integrated exploration areas and ore concentration areas; Even now, its results are still playing an important role. In recent years, mineral exploration has gradually shifted to the depths, and the research and development goals of Xiao Keyan's intelligent exploration technology have also been "from shallow to deep", with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology's special "deep resource prediction system technology research and demonstration" project, focusing on the needs of deep resource forecasting, the theoretical research, key technologies and platform systems of deep mineral resource prediction have been systematically carried out, and the key technical bottlenecks such as the three-dimensional structure reconstruction mechanism of metallogenic space, the deep mineralization positioning mechanism and the deep prediction approach have been broken through, and the prospecting model has been established for the first time. Three-dimensional modeling-quantitative prediction of ternary big data deep mineral resources prediction theoretical method, developed a set of deep comprehensive information prediction and evaluation platform system with independent intellectual property rights, innovated and developed the spatiotemporal structure analysis method and deep information extraction technology of deep metallogenic structure, geophysics, geochemistry and geological anomaly, solved the technical problems such as three-dimensional structure reconstruction of deep metallogenic space, spatial reconstruction of metallogenic geological anomalies and spatial positioning of mineralization in the ore concentration area, and promoted the deep continental prospecting, Technological advances in the field of 3D forecasting. These major achievements have also brought Xiao Keyan many honors: foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Engineering, scientific and technological innovation talent of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiangjiang scholar, Chutian scholar, Everest talent, etc., and the 18th Li Siguang Geological Science Award in 2023 is a full affirmation of his outstanding contributions to geological research. In the process of implementing projects such as the national mineral resource potential evaluation and the national key research and development plan, Xiao Keyan has established a high-level scientific research team that integrates the whole chain of ore laws, potential evaluation, mathematical modeling, software tool research and development, etc., and has formed a national leading big data intelligent prospecting "theory-method-system platform", which is a pioneering achievement with completely independent intellectual property rights.
Under his guidance, the team broke through the disciplinary barriers, and successfully completed the research on the prediction of 2,000 meters of shallow resources of 25 important mineral resources in China, delineated more than 40,000 prospecting targets, more than 2,000 metallogenic prospects, and more than 240 important ore concentration areas, and scientifically estimated the predicted resources at different depths. In the cooperative gold mine integrated exploration area, Tibet's Gangdisi metallogenic belt and other places, deep (shallow 3000 meters) three-dimensional prediction evaluation and prospecting prediction demonstration have been carried out, and a number of prospecting breakthroughs have been made.
The Future: Ascend to the innovation highland of artificial intelligence prediction technology
In today's world of mineral forecasting, there are few people who are unaware of MRAS (Mineral Resources Integrated Information Evaluation System) and MinExplorer (prospector software). This set of mineral resources prediction and evaluation system platform independently developed by the team led by Xiao Keyan during the implementation of the national mineral resources potential evaluation project and has all core technologies and intellectual property rights has broken the technical barriers of foreign countries in this field and filled the gap in the field of mineral prediction informatization in mainland China, and has been fully applied by thousands of geological survey units in 32 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country. Scientific exploration has always been gradual and accumulative. As early as 1996, Xiao Keyan applied for the "Mineral Resources Evaluation Auxiliary Decision-making System Based on GIS Platform", and for the first time in China, he put forward the research idea of combining traditional mineral resources evaluation with modern geoscience information technology and developed the MRAS software system;In 2002, Xiao Keyan undertook the national 863 project "Geospatial Information 3D Visualization System", and began the research and development and accumulation of the core technology of "Prospector" software through distributed grid computing based on GIS-based resource evaluation;2006~In 2013, "Prospector" was popularized and applied in the national crisis mine prospecting project, forming a 3DEM reserve estimation system for ore deposit exploration, and then "Prospector" was upgraded to v3.0 version, realizing the three-dimensional digital deposit model and three-dimensional prediction and evaluation of deep mineral resources. MRAS opens up the GIS workflow of mineral resource evaluation, realizes the automatic assignment of multi-source information variables and the automatic division of prediction units, and completely changes the time-consuming and laborious working environment for statistical prediction of mineral resources in the process of prediction unit selection and variable research; The underlying core technologies such as 3D visualization have realized the transformation from two-dimensional plane prediction to three-dimensional spatial prediction, and also shortened the work completed in a few months to a few days for traditional statistical forecasting. All these have subversively improved the working mode, accuracy and economy of mineral prediction in geological work. With more than 30 years of research and development and application of digital technology for mineral forecasting, Xiao Keyan has deeply realized that "big data driven" has become a new scientific paradigm. He is extremely sensitive to cutting-edge science, and he is clearly aware that the development of a new generation of artificial intelligence prediction technology is the current innovation highland in the field of resource evaluation, and the intelligence of geological prospecting work has become a "rushing river", which is bound to be unstoppable and surging forward. Now, in the general trend of "artificial intelligence +" prospecting, Xiao Keyan has started a new research and exploration for strategic mineral resources - through the project of "Strategic Mineral Resources Big Data Comprehensive Information Prediction and Prospecting Exploration Demonstration", for 11 strategic critical mineral resources such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, etc., the basic theory, method and process of big data prediction and evaluation are innovated. Prediction model and achievement expression, etc., research and development of intelligent geological prediction model and big data accurate prediction technology, innovation of resource evaluation knowledge-driven and data-driven dual engines, breakthrough in the key technology of intelligent geological model prediction computer, the formation of a new generation of intelligent strategic mineral evaluation software system, to solve the problem of resource evaluation software "stuck neck". It's another uphill battle. In the next four years, Xiao Keyan will lead the project team to complete the research on the supernormal enrichment mechanism and metallogenic model of strategic minerals, the research on the comprehensive information extraction and intelligent prediction method and technology of strategic mineral big data, the research and development of the digital deposit model and prediction and evaluation system platform for strategic minerals, and the quantitative evaluation of the resource potential of key metallogenic areas of strategic minerals. We will continue to improve the level of intelligent prediction and evaluation of big data of mineral resources, provide more new target areas for prospecting for the country, and provide important support for finding large mines, good mines and urgently needed mines as soon as possible. For more than 30 years, Xiao Keyan, who has been called "Desperate Saburo" by his colleagues and students, has always regarded the spirit of scientists such as Li Siguang and other geological ancestors as an example and guide, and has taken serving the needs of the country as his own responsibility, has the courage to innovate and be diligent in practice, and has devoted himself to the cause of "promoting the progress of mineral prediction theory and technology". In the future, in the face of the country's new demand for energy and mineral resources and the continuous call of ever-changing digital technology, he will drive the modernization and intelligence of mineral forecasting with scientific and technological innovation.
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Source: China Natural Resources News
Author: Zhou Feifei
Text editor: Wang Yu
New Media Editor: Qu Bingjie (Trainee)
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