Gold Fields will use Fleet Space Technologies’ satellite-linked subsurface imaging technology to survey key existing and prospective resource areas at its Salares Norte gold-copper-silver project in northern Chile’s Atacama region.
Australian-based Fleet Space, which is targeting the terrestrial mineral exploration and offworld space sector with its technology, says ExoSphere 3D subsurface imaging of the Brecha Principal and Agua Amarga areas and surrounds can drive new insights and understandings about the mineral system and its structural setting.
The survey will also be directed at new exploration targets in the near field of the BP-AA system.
“Fleet Space and Gold Fields share a vision of applying the powerful capabilities enabled by advanced satellite connectivity, 3D multi-physics and AI to unify the end-to-end exploration journey and deliver more sustainable outcomes at scale on the path to discovery,” said Fleet Space CEO and co-founder, Flavia Tata Nardini.
Gold Fields poured first gold earlier this year at Salares Norte, on the regional Maricunga Belt in the Andes Mountains between 3900m and 4700m above sea level. It sees adoption of innovative strategies and new technologies as ways it might enhance exploration outcomes while maintaining a low environmental footprint in the remote, physically harsh area.
Gold Fields was an early adopter of ExoSphere in Western Australia.
“In the field of mineral exploration ExoSphere has delivered the world’s largest real-time ANT [ambient noise tomorgraphy] survey in Australia’s Macquarie Arc and now the world’s highest real-time ANT survey on Chile’s Maricunga Belt, radically scaling the mining industry’s capacity to enhance mineral systems knowledge of remote opportunity zones across vast distances and at unprecedented altitudes, while minimising environmental impact,” said Tata Nardini.
Fleet Space says ExoSphere architecture integrates advances in satellite connectivity, 3D multi-physics and AI into a “single end-to-end solution”.
It combines Fleet Space’s own low Earth orbit satellite network, smart seismic sensors with edge computing, and rapid data processing.
The company, which raised A$50 million in series C equity financing last year, was recently recognised at the Banksia Foundation’s 35th National Sustainability Awards as winner of the Climate Technology Impact Award for 2024.
