Partnerships to Utilise AI to Fast-track Discovery

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are being utilised in exploration and discovery, not just to manage and interrogate data and modelling but also to find targets. Many AI companies are focusing on exploration, with examples in Australia and internationally.

SensOre is an Australian-based technology company that harnesses and fuses vast quantities of geoscience and environmental data available in the public domain into a data hypercube. AI and ML are then applied to enhance and develop exploration targets, prospectivity mapping, drill site optimisation and data management. The data hypercube currently contains approximately 2,000 layers of geoscientific data with more than 63 billion data points and was developed with the support of the NSW Government.

Earth AI is an international technology company that partners with mineral resources companies to find and develop targets in greenfield areas. The Earth AI model is trained on 400 million geological cases and generations of data and rates that the prediction tools improve discovery success rates from 0.5 per cent to 55 per cent.

Alliances are formed with mineral resources companies to work in partnership, on a discovery success-based model. This process is asserted to be four times faster than traditional methods and moves from detecting a prospect to drilling in just three to six months.

As an example of the advancements in the application of AI and ML, Earth AI has partnered with Legacy Minerals on select projects in NSW, Australia. In the first drill testing after using AI, a discovery hole confirmed magmatic-related platinum-group elements (PGEs) and nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation in the Fontenoy Project. The discovery drillhole returned a broad zone of mineralisation with 34m at 0.5g/t 3E PGE including a higher-grade zone of 10m at 1.2g/t 3E PGE, 0.2 per cent nickel and 891ppm copper from 388m down-hole. The PGE component includes 10m at 0.89g/t palladium, 0.19g/t platinum, and 0.1g/t gold. This mineralisation style is highly sought after globally and has unlocked a new mineral terrain as this is the first known discovery of this mineralisation in the highly prospective Lachlan Fold Belt in NSW.

By reducing on-the-ground exploration prior to drilling, the application of AI and ML could minimise the social and environmental impact of exploration, cost, energy consumption, and emissions, as well as unlock previously unrecognised discovery opportunities.