This article was co-developed with Mining.com.au partner Barton Gold Holding Limited. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) is continuing its push the boundaries of traditional exploration, partnering with mine-tech company SensOre (ASX:S3N) to rollout an R&D investment partnership that will see artificial intelligence and machine learning used to guide exploration across South Australia’s Central Gawler Craton.
The work is expected to generate a series of gold and copper targets throughout the 60,000km² area surrounding Barton’s tenements, using Discriminant Predictive Targeting (DPT) technology. These targets will then be tested by Barton to validate findings.
Speaking on the news, Barton Gold Managing Director Alexander Scanlon said: “SensOre is on the cutting edge of new mineral exploration technologies and is a standout leader in its field. With strong foundations in practical applications, they are an ideal partner for Barton.
“SUCCESSFUL TRIALS WILL FURTHER STRENGTHEN BARTON’S REGIONAL STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE WITH EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO THE DPT TECHNOLOGY FOR GOLD AND COPPER OVER ~15% OF THE GAWLER CRATON”
Successful trials will further strengthen Barton’s regional strategic advantage with exclusive rights to the DPT technology for gold and copper over ~15% of the Gawler Craton, as we accelerate and consolidate a major new gold district.”
SensOre CEO Richard Taylor added: ”We are excited to join with a leading South Australian innovation-driven gold explorer to demonstrate the tremendous upside potential that machine learning can bring to exploration. Barton’s existing platform of 1.1Moz Au in a richly mineralised domain and ownership of the region’s only gold mill provides an excellent platform for a large-scale discovery and a proof of concept for our DPT engine and its commercial benefits.”
Technology-led approach provides more-accurate exploration
Mineral exploration in the traditional sense comprises an incremental, area-reduction decision-making process that typically incorporates 20-40% of available data and is vulnerable to human bias.
SensOre’s technology-driven approach, which uses integrated AI and machine learning algorithms to analyse thousands of layers and billions of points of geological data, is designed to detect digital fingerprints and ‘predict’ the location of mineral resources in three basic steps: training, prediction, and target analysis, on a massive geoscience Data Cube.
These technologies forecast deposit location and economic feasibility, generating information on predicted endowment, grade, and depth at a cell dimension small enough to speed decision making and proceed directly from anticipated target to drill testing with minimal environmental impact.
Partnership set to adapt technology to South Australian landscape
The R&D Partnership is focused on ‘training’ the DPT system, which was developed to suit outcropping landscapes in Western Australia, to adapt to the more-challenging undercover exploration required around the South Australian gold district.
Barton is set to collaborate with SensOre not only with target testing, but also in providing extensive geological data sets that will assist DPT in its learning process, as it seeks to leverage ‘big data’ to forecast target patterns.
If successful, Barton believes that the technology could provide a game-changing exploration advantage in the under-explored Central Gawler Craton region.
Terms provide win-win
As part of the agreement, Barton will contribute $45,000 towards regional prospectivity mapping during Phase 1 of the partnership, along with an additional amount up to $350,000 during Phase II adaptation of DPT to the Central Gawler Craton geological landscape.
In addition, Barton will drill test and validate targets generated by SensOre’s South Australian DPT module, and importantly, will secure 10-year exclusive rights to copper and gold targets generated across the 60,000km² work area.
Barton tenements (orange) surrounded by Phase I (yellow) and Phase II (white) areas of exclusivitySubject to successful exploration results and the identification of new Mineral Resources at DPT predicted targets, SensOre would then be entitled to royalties from gold and copper production.
Barton driving discoveries with extensive tech toolbelt
The partnership is in character for Barton, which has a history of deploying technology-led exploration initiatives that have attracted significant government funding.
This work has also led to multiple accelerated discoveries at Tarcoola and Tunkillia, and has included:
- Completion of regional seismic reinterpretation following acquisition of new high-resolution aeromagnetics, which was responsible for identifying a new, ‘highly promising’ system of shears and faults similar to the Perseverance Shear, the main structure underpinning the historical high-grade Perseverance Mine
- Trialling of the CSIRO-developed Portable PPB detectORETM technology across high-priority Tarcoola targets. The cutting-edge technology provides rapid on-site soil geochemical testing, bypassing lengthy lab analysis
- Utilising Ground Penetrating Radar, which successfully identified over 25 new shallow targets all less than 10m deep on the Company’s Mining Lease at Tarcoola, including areas with very limited previous drilling; and
- Remodelling of historical data using new technology and processing capabilities, which was responsible for important new gold zone discoveries at Tunkillia’s mostly-untested Yarlbrinda Shear, including the new ~800m long “223 North” and ~650m long “Area 191” gold zones.
Barton has thus far received $300,000 in exploration funding support from the South Australian Government under the Accelerated Discovery Initiative (ADI) program.
Looking forward
Barton and SensOre will now draft a detailed Binding Agreement that incorporates the provisions of the Terms Sheet as well as other usual terms for this type of arrangement.
In the meantime, Barton will continue pressing ahead with large-scale drilling programs testing a long list of targets identified during the past two years’ technical work.
Commenting on upcoming plans, Barton’s MD Alex Scanlon observed: “We are already aggressively building out the Tarcoola and Tunkillia project footprints with a growing track record for discovery success and efficiency. These projects have grown by ~66% in the last 6 months alone with ~2km of new gold mineralisation, and we hope to significantly extend that progress with +20,000km of drilling set to commence during April.
“We are already aggressively building out the Tarcoola and Tunkillia project footprints with a growing track record for discovery success and efficiency… The opportunity is then to bring potential future discoveries into the present, accelerating larger-scale development and production.”
We anticipate that in due course the SensOre technology may open entirely new target areas for large-scale exploration and discovery. The opportunity is then to bring potential future discoveries into the present, accelerating larger-scale development and production.”
