Fleet Space Technologies and Inflection Resources are pioneering the use of space technology and artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of large-scale copper-gold deposits in Australia’s Macquarie Arc.
Leveraging the real-time Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) survey capabilities of Fleet Space’s end-to-end mineral exploration solution, ExoSphere, Inflection Resources has identified several new priority targets under a thick sequence of sedimentary cover masking the underlying, older prospective geology at its Duck Creek project in New South Wales.
As part of the expanded charter, Inflection Resources will deploy ExoSphere on a significant part of its tenement portfolio extending over approximately 1,818 sq.km in the Macquarie Arc of the Lachlan Fold Belt – underscoring both companies’ commitment to responsible mineral discovery, enabled by data-driven exploration with near-zero environmental impact, Fleet Space says.
“Without a major acceleration in copper discoveries, humanity’s transition to renewable energy and building the infrastructure necessary for the global AI industry are unachievable,” Fleet Space CEO & co-Founder, Flavia Tata Nardini, said. “We are proud to conduct the world’s largest mineral exploration survey with Ambient Noise Tomography in support of Inflection Resources’ data-driven exploration of the Macquarie Arc with our end-to-end solution, ExoSphere, and deliver sustainable subsurface insights at scale with our next-generation AI capabilities.”
Inflection Resources is a copper exploration company with projects across the Macquarie Arc. Inflection attempted a variety of geophysical survey techniques to prospect for copper in the basement rocks over the Duck Creek project area, however, the depth of post-mineral sedimentary cover and conductivity of those sediments resulted in these methods failing to produce reliable results. This led Inflection Resources to deploy Fleet Space’s end-to-end mineral exploration solution, ExoSphere, over the area – taking advantage of its high-resolution 3D imaging to depths of 2.5 km, which is indifferent to the conductive elements in the cover sediment, including groundwater.
The subsurface insights delivered by ExoSphere’s geophysical surveys at the Duck Creek project enabled Inflection Resources to identify multiple new high priority drill targets to be explored in the coming months, Fleet Space says. The 3D models generated by ExoSphere detected low-velocity zones in areas where previous drilling showed alteration typical of that seen in proximity to other alkalic copper-gold porphyry systems in the Macquarie Arc and high-velocity features consistent with potential intrusions. After Inflection Resources’ announcement of new targets, AngloGold Ashanti shifted the designation of Duck Creek from Phase 1 to Phase II under its Exploration Agreement with Inflection Resources – which includes drilling targets identified with ExoSphere’s geophysical surveys.
Building on the identification of these previously unknown zones of interest at Duck Creek, Inflection Resources will deploy ExoSphere to survey 1,818 sq.km of its exploration licences and leverage Fleet Space’s next-generation AI capabilities to create a copper prospectivity map of its projects across the Macquarie Arc.
Inflection Resources’ President & CEO, Alistair Waddell, said: “The end-to-end capabilities of ExoSphere and the 3D subsurface insights it unlocked has helped Inflection rapidly identify several new high-priority targets at our Duck Creek project and demonstrated that the ExoSphere system can accelerate the data-driven exploration of our projects. We’re excited to work with Fleet Space again and deploy ExoSphere on a large scale across Inflection’s projects in the Macquarie Arc and leverage Fleet Space’s AI-powered prospectivity insights to aid our exploration strategy across Australia’s premier porphyry copper-gold province.”
The copper prospectivity map created with ExoSphere’s AI engine for Inflection Resources’ exploration licences in the Macquarie Arc is an example of the AI-powered insights that are possible with large-scale, multimodal, 3D subsurface data, Fleet Space says. Fleet Space’s real-time data acquisition capabilities are enabled by its proprietary satellite constellation, smart seismic sensors (Geodes) and 3D data processing to enhance onsite decision making at each phase of a drilling campaign. From target validation, prospecting or reducing uncertainty across a project, ExoSphere’s end-to-end capabilities unlock 3D and AI-powered insights that enhance data-driven exploration with unprecedented speed, scale and accuracy.
ExoSphere’s 3D Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) survey data has been shown to be up to three times more important than other geophysical methods for the construction of a multimodal foundation model. This is due to ANT’s inherent scalability which allows for the generation of high-quality 3D data sets at any scale with equal effectiveness. By integrating the ANT survey results with data from other geophysical techniques, such as magnetic, gravity, EM, IP and more, ExoSphere’s AI engine can be fine-tuned to deliver a wide range of subsurface insights to accelerate mineral exploration worldwide.
