5. Exploration - Are we Swamped by Data?

05/31/20 • 35 min

There’s one concept everyone in the geosciences can’t stop talking about – data. Whether we’re collecting it, analyzing it, or cleaning it, the work never seems to end.
As we face challenges like deposits becoming deeper and harder to find, how do we make sure we’re leveraging data in the right ways, to support us now and in the future?
The first part is using the right data management practices when we’re collecting data – whether historical or new. Joanne Wood shares how KoBold Metals is approaching data intensive approaches to exploration, and her best practices in data management.
Of course, we also need tools to manipulate and analyze this data once collected. Lindsey Heagy (Ph.D., UC Berkeley) talks about open source software development, and how it contributes to innovation and reproducibility in the geosciences.
And once our data has been manipulated, perhaps we need to pass it onto another team to use. Usually, this is a long and frustrating process involving scripts and error checking. But the Global Mining Guidelines Group has introduced an open standard to combat this – the Open Mining Format (OMF). Franklin Koch (Integration Lead, Seequent) shares why interoperability matters, and his experience writing the first iteration of OMF.
Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds
eastwindsmusic.com

Come join us in Brisbane, Australia for SEG 2025, September 26-29th. This will be a dynamic conference with cutting edge science, new discoveries, technology and more. Opportunities for networking and learning include several workshops and field trips before and after the event, relaxed social events and of course the conference itself. See you there!

Previous Episode

4. Game Changers – Olympic Dam and IOCG Deposit Models, Geometallurgy and Big Data

The discovery of Olympic Dam in Australia captured the imaginations of exploration geologists around the world – over 40 years later we are just beginning to appreciate the nature and extent of what a ‘game changer’ Olympic Dam was for the mining industry. In this episode we talk to one of the most knowledgeable geoscientists about the deposit, Kathy Ehrig (BHP) about its discovery, mineralogy, structural control and massive size. That is all captivating in itself, but the discovery also prompted recognition of an entirely new class of ore deposits, Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold, or IOCG and research around the world into the processes which may be at work to produce these enigmatic deposits. Tim Baker (Eldorado Gold), with extensive experience in IOCG deposit research, takes us through the various models.
The sheer complexity of Olympic Dam also created significant metallurgical problems. Kathy Ehrig led the team that developed new approaches and data analysis to identify the problems, effectively doing ‘geometallurgy’ before the term was widely applied, and setting standards for others to follow. Betsy Friedlander (Teck Resources), an exploration geologist now working on geometallurgy at the Trail Facility in British Columbia, sheds light on the how important the whole area of geometallurgy has become and why we should be thinking about it from the earliest stages of exploration.
So you might have guessed already, but where does this lead us back to? Big data, and Kathy comes full circle in this episode, helping to place the role of big data into the whole complex picture of a giant among ore deposits.
The Ore Deposits Hub is sponsored by SEG-SGA-IAGOD
oredepositshub.com
For more insights and stories with Kathy Ehrig, listen to Exploration Radio episode #34 sponsored by SEG
explorationradio.com
Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds
eastwindsmusic.com

Next Episode

6. Metals for the Future

Join us for system-scale thinking in geoscience and a view of a more sustainable world from magmatic -sulfide sources of PGEs and Ni to innovative mineral processing work and technology metals.
Steve Barnes (CSIRO) has spent a career working on magmatic sulfide deposits, leading him to some big thinking over multiple length and time scales. He talks about how his ideas were formed by key individuals and circumstances and where the multi-scale system thinking might lead us in studying other geological processes. We also talk to Steve about the supply of PGEs and what might affect the market in the future, from the impact of lower grade deposits to co-production of other base metals.
Our second story centers on the one hundred-year old process used to extract metals from sulfides – froth flotation. Kathryn Hadler (Imperial College London) introduces the key concepts and then poses some important questions about what the next steps are in mineral processing. How can we address the issues of what mineral processing needs to look like in 30 or 40 years, and not just the immediate challenges?
Thinking about the future leads to a wide ranging discussion with Frances Wall (Professor, Cambourne School of Mines) from the definition of critical metals to the more descriptive technology metals, sourcing REEs from carbonatites, life cycle assessment and how it all can come together in the circular economy, if geoscientists are involved.
Steve Barnes lecture
oredepositshub.com

Technology Metals for a Green Future
www.futurelearn.com
Theme music is Confluence by Eastwinds
eastwindsmusic.com