Improving mineral exploration’s ROI by increasing imaging speed and accuracy
Mining is a financially risky and environmentally demanding industry. As few as one in a thousand mineral exploration projects becomes a commercially viable mine. Exploratory drilling requires building access roads in remote areas, removing vegetation and the use of drilling fluids that can contaminate surface and groundwater.
But mining, especially for critical minerals, is essential for modern infrastructure, clean energy, electronics and defence technologies. “Canada has been gifted with a very diverse geology and mineral resources, which could be leveraged to position us as a superpower to supply critical minerals globally,” says Masoud Aali.
Aali’s solution is to reduce both financial and environmental risks by increasing the speed and accuracy of imaging from exploratory core samples. His technology shortens the gap between drilling and geochemical analyses, offering near real-time insights, which can translate into less drilling.
Canada excels at bridging the gap between research and solution.
Using AI to accelerate workflows
Aali’s company, Scient Analytics, is a Sudbury-based tech startup incorporated in 2021 that specializes in ultra-high-resolution scanning of drill-core samples for the mining sector.
Scient’s mining technology uses sensors to shine light on drill core samples in the field, measuring how much is absorbed and how much is reflected. The ratio of light absorption versus reflection reveals the unique chemical composition of each mineral.
The company's AI software then translates that information into extremely high-resolution images within minutes. Typically, geologists can wait days to weeks for such results.
