The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - August 23, 2024
Power Nickel is leveraging Fleet Space's satellite-enabled ExoSphere mineral exploration technology to scan three copper projects along the Atacama Fault System in Chile.
ExoSphere Geodes, such as this one at a copper project in Arizona, use edge computing to process gathered data before transmitting the information to Fleet Space LEO satellites.
Satellite view of the Atacama Desert and Atacama Fault near the Chilean city of Antofagasta.
From Barrick Gold's Reko Diq mine project in Pakistan to Inflection Resources' Macquarie Arc land package in Australia and Eagle Mountain Mining's Silver Mountain property in Arizona, Fleet Space Technologies' ExoSphere mineral exploration technology has emerged as an increasingly important tool to efficiently and sustainably discover new sources of the copper needed to wire the clean energy transition.
Given the rapidly expanding global reach of ExoSphere, it was only a matter of time before this satellite-enabled and AI-enhanced technology was deployed in the world's top copper-producing country – Chile.
"Fleet Space is thrilled to bring the latest advances in space technology, 3D multiphysics, and AI to drive faster and more sustainable outcomes in partnership with Chile's dynamic exploration industry," said Fleet Space Technologies CEO Flavia Tata Nardini.
Power Nickel, which has already had success in leveraging ExoSphere to explore for nickel at its Nisk project in Quebec, has now deployed the advanced mineral exploration technology to gain new geological insights into their copper projects along Chile's Atacama Fault System.
"Learning from our deployments at Nisk, we are applying these powerful new technologies to unlock efficiencies and identify targets at unprecedented speed, scale, and depth across our Chile portfolio to stay at the forefront of advances in global copper exploration," said Power Nickel CEO Terry Lynch.
By integrating powerful new technologies such as low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites and artificial intelligence into a more down-to-earth technology that is a mainstay for discovering new deposits rich in the minerals the world needs and wants, Fleet Space has advanced mineral exploration into the 21st century.
ExoSphere is basically an Information Age upgrade of geophysics – a tool geologists use to gain clearer insights into the rocks hidden below Earth's surface. Much like X-ray and MRI methods to see inside the human body, geophysical techniques are used to scan for buried rock packages and geological formations with the potential to be enriched with minerals.
Traditionally, geophysical surveys involved stringing out sensing equipment connected by miles of cables over the area being scanned or specialized equipment mounted to aircraft that fly over the prospective area.
The geophysical information retrieved is then physically transported to a location where geophysicists interpret the data and then forward the results to the exploration company – a process that often takes weeks before useable data is returned to the geologists on the ground.
ExoSphere Geodes, such as this one at a copper project in Arizona, use edge computing to process gathered data before transmitting the information to Fleet Space LEO satellites.
Fleet Space's ExoSphere combines a constellation of LEO nanosatellites with earthbound sensors called Geodes, edge computing, and AI to carry out ambient noise tomography (ANT) geophysical surveys that simplify, accelerate, and improve upon the geophysical techniques that have aided in the discovery of hidden orebodies for more than five decades.
This system offers several advantages when it comes to sustainability and efficiency.
Fleet Space's Geodes are hand-transportable, wireless, and battery-powered seismic sensors that are easy to deploy. Once sufficient ANT data is gathered by a grid of Geodes, these sensors use a technology known as edge computing to partially process the raw information before transmitting the streamlined data to Fleet Space's low-earth-orbit satellites. These satellites relay the information to a ground station that is able to deliver nearly real-time 3D mapping of mineral systems and AI-powered insights into the subsurface geology with near-zero environmental impact.
And the more global copper deposits ExoSphere scans, the more data the AI system has to work with.
"The speed, depth, and cross-scale capability of ExoSphere's real-time 3D subsurface imaging is not only enhancing the geological understanding of major copper regions in isolation, but also the commonalities between them," said Nardini. "This is rapidly accelerating mineral systems knowledge and delivering a more holistic geological context needed to scale and enhance the success rates of data-driven copper exploration globally."
Power Nickel's use of ExoSphere at the Nisk project has helped the company begin to unlock the wider potential of this nickel-copper-cobalt-platinum group metal project in Quebec.
"The simplified end-to-end data journey enabled by ExoSphere's real-time 3D subsurface data acquisition, satellite-enabled data processing, and rapid delivery of targeting insights has taken our data-driven exploration strategies to new heights while also delivering more sustainable outcomes pivotal to our company's mission," said Lynch.
Given the success at Nisk, coupled with ExoSphere's ability to identify geological structures that play a fundamental role in the formation of large copper, Power Nickel decided to use the mineral exploration tech pioneered by Fleet Space to scan for such structures at its Zulema, Palo Negro, and Tierra de Oro projects in Chile.
Satellite view of the Atacama Desert and Atacama Fault near the Chilean city of Antofagasta.
The satellite-enabled geophysical scan successfully identified significant faulting in all three areas and provided Power Nickel geologists with new insights about geological structures and geophysical anomalies on these properties along the Atacama Fault.
Power Nickel plans to leverage the higher resolution understanding of structures and potential magnetic features across their projects to zero in on target zones with potential hydrothermal activity and copper mineralization.
For Fleet Space, scanning Chile's Atacama Fault System will build upon the data from its AI-enhanced mineral exploration scanning of world-class copper districts around the globe.
"Deployments of ExoSphere in Chile's copper belt and the world's most prolific copper producing regions is yielding compounding geological insight into the mineral systems that underpin the formation of these deposits," said Nardini.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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