Developing a mine will always be a lengthy business, but the technological leaps in exploration techniques and solutions over the past 20 years have transformed the speed at which explorers can get off the mark and deliver mineral targets that can be developed into resources.
This is according to geological veteran Bill Kellaway, executive chairman and
principal consultant (exploration and mining) of SRK Exploration Services, who points to how the digital revolution has created opportunities for more rapid execution of exploration projects.
“Global positioning system (GPS) technology – which in fact dates back to the 1960s – has really changed the game, especially when incorporated into accessible devices like mobile phones,” says Kellaway. “This and associated advances have released exploration geology from many of the costly and time-consuming tasks traditionally associated with this field – such as by locating yourself anywhere on the planet and being able to load geological data directly into a digital and hence
transferable format,” he adds.
Not only has this allowed more data to be collected more quickly, but it has heralded higher levels of precision – a factor that can make the difference between a project’s success or failure. Geologists can analyse far greater quantities of data, integrate it and model it in 3D, which in turn speeds up the pace of reaching vital decision points in a project. The digitisation of old hardcopy data has become very important at a time when data has great commercial value.
Revisiting data
“With our new modelling software, for instance, we can go back over historical exploration data and uncover opportunities that weren’t obvious before,” says Colin Rawbone, director and principal exploration geologist at SRK Exploration Services. “There was nothing wrong with the quality of work done many decades ago, but there were limitations based on technology, data handling or even political stances
at the time.”
This has allowed areas where mining had previously been conducted on surface, to be rejuvenated through the identification of valuable ore deeper underground. Whereas most deposits over the past century were uncovered by prospectors, the last couple of decades have seen that role passed to geophysical and geochemical surveys and other technologies with much higher precision levels, says Rawbone.
