The Scope of Digital Adoption in Geophysical Services

Non-renewable resources are more likely to be sustainable due to technological innovation in mineral exploration than ever before.

FREMONT, CA: The mining industry needs more metals and raw materials as the world population grows and urbanization and industrialization advance. Nevertheless, new ore deposits, especially those discovered through greenfield exploration, have declined over the past few years under challenging conditions and circumstances for mineral exploration, such as thick overburden, an isolated district, a decline in ore grade, social and environmental concerns, and so on.

Therefore, technological innovation is more important than ever to ensure the sustainability of non-renewable resources.

Accordingly, improving cost-effectiveness and labor-saving are the most important requirements for exploration technology, considering mining risks, exploration's role, and the characteristics of exploration technology. Cost-effectiveness is always a priority for every company. It is possible to save labor using an unmanned platform such as a crewless aerial vehicle (UAV), also known as a drone, as described in the unmanned survey platform paragraph.

Mineral exploration faces several technical challenges, including thick cover layers and remote, logistically challenging areas. As such, technical challenges can and should be overcome. Companies are using innovative and cutting-edge technologies to detect the presence of minerals under thick cover layers and in remote areas. In addition, remote sensing technologies can monitor the environment and detect changes in land cover or land use that could indicate the presence of mineral deposits.

In the Canadian Shield, glacial deposits and deeply weathered regolith bearing high electrical conductivity are typical thick cover layers that impede mineral exploration. These thick cover layers have been explored using unique geophysical exploration techniques in both countries. Geophysical techniques such as airborne electromagnetics, time-domain electromagnetics, and gravity gradiometry are representative examples in Canada, Australia, and other countries. Compared with galvanic resistivity methods, electromagnetic methods allow deeper exploration of resistivity structures to be controlled parametrically by the transmission frequency and other factors. The exploration depth of ground-borne and airborne electromagnetic methods has continuously increased by using high-temperature superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs) to increase dipole moments, transmission power, and detector sensitivity.

Using remote exploration techniques such as airborne geophysics and remote sensing can be extremely helpful when exploring mineral deposits in remote regions that are logistically challenging. Furthermore, it is critically important that human resources are not injured in those explorations, even if an incident occurs in an airborne vehicle carrying a measuring instrument. For this purpose, unmanned artificial satellites, as well as a variety of crewless aerial vehicles, are effective. As an example of labor-saving measures, the UAV was used as an example. As described in the previous section, mining companies avoid risks, focus on more promising late-stage projects, and explore existing mines due to the current socio-economic turmoil. In the long run, however, grassroots exploration must also be considered. A conceptual exploration plan is essential for grassroots exploration.