The paradigm shift for minerals exploration using ultrafine soils and intelligent data integration tools

The Challenge

Soil geochemical exploration practices have changed little in decades, despite evolving need to investigate challenging areas covered by sediments. CSIRO have developed the UltraFine+TM workflow to optimise elemental results from soil geochemistry but industry lacks confidence using this data and needs greater exposure to the workflow to understand its potential.

The Solution

This project will develop a robust set of measurable parameters and new data products using the UltraFine+TM method to assess the relationship of geochemistry to soil properties including spectral mineralogy and pH. Applied to publicly available data using machine learning, these workflows and insights will help identify next-generation exploration targets, explain and filter out false positive results, and quantify uncertainty in soil geochemistry results to better assess risk and support qualified exploration decisions.

Proposed Benefits to WA

This tailored soil geochemical approach will provide more efficient and effective exploration decision making across the vast areas of WA where prospective geology is covered by later sediments, supporting discovery of the next generation of ore deposits to underpin the minerals industry in the state.

This project is an extension to M0462.

Keywords: gold, machine learning, microparticulate, regolith