The venture arm of German chemical giant, BASF, announced its strategic investment in a UK-based software company called Intellisense specializing in artificial intelligence for the mining industry.

Mining Problems 101:

According to BASF, companies have two main challenges to overcome when extracting metals from mined ores:

1. "today’s known ore deposits are increasingly difficult to mine, with declining ore grades and greater environmental challenges"
2. "the composition of the orebody is not known with high accuracy"

Ultimately, these problems affect the quantities of metals produced and the efficiency of doing so.

So why is BASF interested?

Intellisense provides many different "process optimization applications spanning the entire mining value chain, from the mine to the plant and the markets". Now that BASF is invested, the two companies are combining knowledge to offer customers a better solution. BASF's portfolio of mineral processing chemicals and technologies along with Intellisense's software now provides a new service called "BASF Intelligent Mine powered by IntelliSense.io".

Read the press release here.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has announced that it is exactly 73% done (very precise) with its $3.5 billion refinery expansion project at Ruwais.

What is the project?

The refinery has predominantly refined a grade of crude oil found off the shores of Abu Dhabi for the last 40 years. The project will enable the refinery at Ruwais to process over 50 different varieties of crude oil. While most of the physical infrastructure has been installed, the project won't be completed until mid-2022.

Why do the project?

This project is one piece of ADNOC's $45 billion puzzle to become a leading player in the downstream market. According to ADNOC, "The project will increase the value ADNOC derives from every barrel of oil, both by boosting refining margins and by leaving more high-value Murban crude available for export.".

Read the press release here.

Integrated energy and chemical company based in South Africa, Sasol, announced that its new low-density polyethylene (LDPE) unit will be coming online in October. The unit will be part of its $13 billion Lake Charles Chemicals Project (LCCP).

Some context:

This LDPE unit will be the last unit to come online for this project, so the massive expansion is nearing completion. When it is all said and done the massive complex will consist of a 1.5 million ton per year ethane cracker and six downstream chemical units.

Why are they doing this project?

The new expansion is taking advantage of all of the ethane in the US. According to Sasol, "Once commissioned, this world-scale petrochemicals complex will roughly triple Sasol’s chemical production capacity in the United States, enabling Sasol to further strengthen its position in a growing global chemicals market."

Read the press release here.