Exploration survey technology company Fleet Space Technologies says joint projects are already underway with newly acquired HiSeis, a 16-year-old private firm spun out of Western Australia’s Curtin University that has made a name for itself in a limited field of mineral seismic geophysics contractors.
Fleet Space, which has introduced ambient noise tomography (ANT) based exploration to miners such as Rio Tinto, Barrick Gold, Gold Fields and Ma’aden, completed a A$150 million private funding round last year. HiSeis is its first acquisition. No information on the transaction has been provided.
A syndicate of investors led by Azure Capital and including ASX-listed Ausdrill (now Perenti) bought a majority share of HiSeis in 2018. Ausdrill described the investment as “immaterial”. In 2022, HiSeis claimed to have “evolved into the most significant hard rock geological imaging company in the world”, completing more than 150 seismic surveys in 15 countries.
A year later it was engaged by the Geological Survey of WA to do 1200km of deep crustal 2D seismic reflection surveys along three lines in the state’s south and mid west. The GSWA said data from the surveys could be used to create images of the Earth’s crust up to 50km deep.
HiSeis sends seismic energy into the ground and measures the energy returned to the surface after bouncing off geological features deep underground. It uses customised processing tools to produce images of the reflected energy to varying resolution levels to aid drill targeting.
Fleet Space is promoting the combination of HiSeis’ data acquisition with its ExoSphere platform – nano-satellites, portable ground sensors and AI modelling – as a way of expanding 3D insights into mineral systems.
“To unlock the potential of real-time exploration and AI we must consolidate, standardise and integrate high-quality datasets to maximise the predictive capabilities of frontier AI systems,” said Fleet Space CEO and co-founder, Flavia Tata Nardini. “By combining Fleet Space’s vertically integrated exploration platform with HiSeis’ seismic exploration solutions and imaging expertise we are taking a vital step to generate exabytes of high-quality exploration data needed to unlock faster exploration outcomes and enhance shareholder value for the global mining industry.”
