Earth AI and Legacy Minerals make unexpected palladium discovery in New South Wales.

Exploration and joint venture partners Legacy Minerals and Earth AI announced the discovery of one of the largest palladium systems in Australia using Earth AI's proprietary artificial intelligence and predictive mineral exploration technology.

In the Southwestern Slopes of New South Wales, Australia, in a mineral-rich part of the Lachlan Fold Belt is an area called the Fontenoy Project. Earth AI first identified Fontenoy as highly prospective for magmatic nickel in 2022, partnering with Legacy Minerals to identify and drill a discovery hole.

In October, Earth AI agreed to take majority control of the project (80% equity), in exchange for a $2.9 million (A$4.5 million) investment into exploration.

Beyond the original drilled area, Earth AI has since uncovered broader mineralization across a two-square-kilometer (500 acres) zone, which could make it the largest prospect of its kind in the world. Its technology has achieved an industry-best 75% discovery success rate, while at the same time speeding up the mineral exploration process by four times and reducing costs by up to 75%.

"After years of development, we are incredibly excited to see our AI-powered technology accurately predicting the location of mineral deposits and our drilling program validating those predictions," said Earth AI CEO Roman Teslyuk. "The opportunity at Fontenoy is massive and it is a project that has huge significance, both in providing critical metals needed for the energy transition, as well as from a personal perspective, as a Ukrainian, in providing an alternative source to the market that doesn't fund Russia's war on Ukraine."

Palladium is a platinum group metal (PGM) currently mostly used in catalytic converters for internal combustion and hybrid vehicles to reduce emissions. Moving forward, this metal is increasingly being used as a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells, which is expected to drive demand in the coming decade.

The AI-powered discovery of magmatic nickel, copper, and PGMs was made in a region of Australia previously thought to contain none – representing a major potential shift for critical mineral global markets away from Russia, which produces roughly 40% of the global palladium supply while another 40% comes from South African mines operating under devastating working conditions.

A discovery at Fontenoy's scale comes at a critical time when new mineral prospects have declined by more than 70% over the last decade. Next-generation prospecting, mining, and refining techniques have been just as likely used to revisit legacy mines, commodify waste streams, and extend aging operations, often at lower grades.

"Legacy Minerals is pleased to see results of the great work completed to date by Earth AI in unpacking the palladium, platinum, gold and nickel potential of the Fontenoy project," said Legacy Minerals CEO Chris Byrne. "The latest results strengthen the Earth AI team's confidence in the continuity, scale, and overall potential of this mineralized system."

Legacy Minerals has been involved in gold, copper, and base-metal project acquisition and exploration in New South Wales since 2017.

Earth AI, founded the same year, uses predictive, high-accuracy AI technology that has been trained on remote sensing, geophysical, and exploration datasets, and minimally invasive drilling technology to validate discovered deposits faster and cheaper. It is designed to work in unexplored, data-poor environments.

The company's proprietary drilling hardware also reduces exploratory drill holes to the size of a tennis ball, significantly reducing environmental impact, cost, and time.

The Fontenoy system is still under exploration with geochemical and geophysical indicators demonstrating the potential to host higher-grade zones, as identified in the last round of drilling, with three more holes planned for completion before the end of the year.