Maria Nicolaidis, Segment Marketing Manager, Seequent, sat down with Janina Elliott, Segment Director, Mining, to explore the trends, the complexities and the opportunities shaping the mineral exploration landscape.
We see fluctuations in junior investment, with recent decline rather than sustained growth. What are the main factors influencing this volatility, and the implications for the wider industry, particularly for junior explorers?
Many factors are at play here, from global influences to specific, local drivers. Geopolitical uncertainties across the world and repercussions in terms of a restructure of global supply chains and alliances create risk in the minds of long-term investors.
It is not easy to raise capital in a market focused on getting quick returns. While well-advanced projects near feasibility have an advantage, there is immense scrutiny of greenfield programmes and their ability to generate enough of a return-on-investment to attract more financial support.
Whether an investment is made can also be due to factors such as the specific commodity being pursued, the geographic location, and associated policy landscape.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. The silver lining is that the industry generally agrees we are in an upward swing towards a super-cycle focused on critical minerals. The outlook for gold is continuously bullish, and the need for these minerals, including copper, and specialty commodities such as rare-earth elements is rising.
If we want to accelerate the fourth industrial revolution, in terms of energy transition and the path to automation and AI, we are in dire need of these commodities.
The pipeline for world-class deposits is extremely thin and has been for years. Investment, and mergers and acquisitions, will be particularly important for the mining chain. While the industry is focused on known deposits and near-mine investigations, an expansion of exploration will be needed longer-term.
Which global mining trends will have the biggest impact?
There have been three major trends in the mining industry in recent years, one of which is now obsolete.
The growth paradigm of ‘value over volume’, also known as ‘growth for growth’s sake’, has been a long-lived mantra resulting in undisciplined capital spending and a subsequent investor backlash. Such traditional approaches have to be reassessed.
Growth now needs to be actively linked to creating value, profits, and returns. Real-time information collection, interpretation, and use in directing an agile and live plan, whether in exploration or active operation, are the key to growth. Not taking proper notice of acquired data before deciding on a project’s next step is an approach which has had its day.
Secondly, there is the strategic dilemma of whether to build or buy – in other words, whether to grow organically or inorganically. With such a thin project pipeline, the majors need to decide which way to go, as mergers and acquisitions affect junior companies.
Thirdly is the dilemma of ‘safe havens’ versus ‘frontier exploration’. Geographic strategy is an area of intense debate, one in which political risk must be weighed against geological reward.
The public sector’s need for local success means policies and permitting rules are being adapted to accelerate projects promising a competitive edge in the minerals market. This includes changes to standards of disclosure for mineral projects such as Canada’s National Instrument 43-101 and Australasia’s Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code (JORC).
From budget constraints to growing data complexity, juniors face a number of challenges. How can these challenges be turned into opportunities to differentiate or accelerate success?
Keep your eyes on the nimble junior company whose flexibility will show everyone else how it can be done.
Wherever you are in the mining chain, technology is recognised as the key to unlocking future growth. But how do you know which platforms to choose and how to deploy them successfully and optimally to ensure the return-on-investment wanted?
Integrating our traditional methods with cloud-enabled data management and computational analytics requires something of a cultural shift. We need to move away from our well-trodden routines and become more agile, as new data rapidly changes the outlook, the plan, and the method.
Juniors have always been highly adaptable in the face of tough situations. While some might think technological change will primarily cascade from the top down, watch out for the smart junior which may change the way we approach exploration.
How should juniors approach emerging technologies like machine learning, AI and automated mining workflows to get the most value without overextending limited resources?
Juniors can benefit from the plethora of emerging technologies which remove time-consuming manual processes, but some technologies are yet to prove themselves.
Bearing in mind juniors’ financial constraints and pressures on delivery for stakeholders, it would be best for them to pick solutions which integrate seamlessly, are easy to use, and drive smarter and faster decision-making. Perhaps focus on the core of an exploration project – data acquisition before and during drilling and geological modelling.
A seamlessly connected tech stack can link early-exploration data with an ongoing and evolving site model. A great example is the link between Oasis montaj, used in geophysical-target generation, and Leapfrog Geo. This is where the synergies begin, based on additional product links through the Seequent Evo platform, including data management through MX Deposit and core-image capture in Imago. This connection creates an ecosystem that involves our products but isn’t limited to it.
AI and ML can enhance traditional field practices. ML-enabled software such as Imago cuts out time-consuming manual labour associated with photo manipulation and core handling and speeds up geological and geotechnical investigations. The software not only lends a new level of standardisation to the process that has been historically amiss but creates a whole new digital asset unaffected by weathering and time. Images can be immediately accessed by Leapfrog Geo and integrated in the ongoing decision-making process based on agile 3D geological modelling.
Clever analytics can also help untangle geological complexities. Geologists at a new site can become biased by static deposit models, hampered by lack of geological information, or even overwhelmed by data volumes they cannot easily act on.
At Seequent we have created Driver, a cloud-based tool that supports spatial exploratory data analysis of drilling data sets. Integrated ML automates the analysis of numerical and categorical data, highlighting numeric trends so teams can quickly understand the structure of their deposit, its domains, and make better downstream models – with less manual effort and no coding.
Image: Core imagery from Imago streamed in Leapfrog Geo
Source: Seequent
In today’s investment climate, what do you feel is most critical for juniors to build and maintain investor confidence?
Transparency isn’t optional – it’s imperative! Whether it is financial or operational discipline, investors need to see that every dollar spent was with the intent to optimise. Agile decision-making for success needs to be painstakingly tracked and be easily communicated through numbers and visual 3D content.
Integrated software solutions are very important, but it is essential their output is linked to a reliable data-management system. Being able to defend with conviction every metre drilled, based on robust data analytics, is the key to maintaining investor confidence.
If you could give juniors one piece of advice to future-proof their exploration projects, what would it be?
Traditional methods still have their merits, but automation enabled through AI and ML are defining a new type of explorer now gaining traction in the industry. Investors are well-aware of this paradigm shift and will support projects with a balance of robust geoscience and software-enhanced analytics.
Remember – you are not alone in this brave new world! Seequent is a reliable partner that can help you navigate the path to technological reconfiguration and unlock new value.
You decide what happens with your data and our open platform and connected ecosystem is here to provide you with the springboard needed to take the leap into this new digital age of exploring.