Earth X-ray for Low-Impact Mining
Accelerating the global transition to low-impact mining with the world’s first Earth x-ray discovery platform
Project Overview
The Problem
There’s no clean energy without mining. To power the global transition to technologies such as electrification, wind, solar, nuclear, and other clean-tech energy solutions, production of many critical minerals and metals needs to increase by nearly 500% over the next 20-30 years. With most near-surface deposits already discovered, the mining industry is now being forced to search deeper underground.
Traditional search methods equate to a lot of unnecessary, invasive, and costly drilling, with an average return on investment of -45%. These drilling costs currently account for 55% (US$6B) of the annual global exploration investment spend. Innovation is required to enable precision-targeting, change the economics of exploration, and with it reduce the current environmental impact of mining while increasing the sustainable production of critical mineral resources.
How We Are Solving It
This project, led by muon tomography pioneer Ideon Technologies, will allow mining companies — through new implementation and integration methods, to identify density and magnetic anomalies with greater resolution and clarity up to 1 km beneath the Earth’s surface, much like x-rays and MRIs give us visibility inside the human body. The project consortium, which includes Dias Geophysical, Fireweed Metals, Simon Fraser University, Mitacs, and Microsoft (with additional industry support from BHP), will build, test, and deploy a new Discovery Platform that will help precision-target deposits and create the environmentally responsible mineral supply needed to fuel the clean energy transition.
The Discovery Platform will feature state-of-the-art hardware and software, novel data inversion and integration techniques, advanced AI algorithms, and geostatistical methods to construct detailed 3D density profiles of subsurface anomalies such as mineral and metal deposits, air voids, caves and other structures. This increased visibility and locational accuracy will help reduce ‘hit-and-miss’ drilling and the associated environmental impacts. This Canadian innovation can positively impact the underlying economics of a very traditional industry, paving the way for low-impact mining – or, for some minerals, being able to mine without a mine.
Project Lead
Project Partners
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“This project will generate new technologies and breakthrough approaches to help solve one of the oldest problems on Earth. As co-innovators, we will deliver a solution to the global mining industry that will directly reduce the cost, time, risk, and environmental impact of finding new mineral and metal deposits, while dramatically increasing certainty and discovery rates in a sector that has been historically characterized by uncertainty.”
CEO and Co-Founder, Ideon Technologies Inc. Read the News Release -
“Technology will help us unlock the next generation of resources the world needs to support economic growth and decarbonisation. Through partnerships with technology innovators and others in the resources industry, we can help bring new technologies to market that will improve the precision, depth, and sustainability of exploration in Canada and globally. BHP has a long history and a growing presence in Canada, and we are pleased to join this collaboration to support the nation’s resources sector.”
Chief Technical Officer, BHP Read the Financial Post Article (November 2021)