My imagination tells me that they 'fed' it with all geographical/geological data available, and cross referenced them with various locations of mines (different

My imagination tells me that they 'fed' it with all geographical/geological data available, and cross referenced them with various locations of mines (different ores)(gold, cobalt, copper, etc.) and the "machine" "figured out" that (silly example) river + mountain + over500m + earthquakes (or lack of) + various other parameters = so-and-so ore. There may be some 'coincidences'/similarities that require many parameters that the eye misses, while the "AI" can combine far more parameters.