Going Vertical: Engineering Meets Exploration

Exploration doesn't fail because we lack data. It fails because the process of exploration has become bloated and fragmented.

If you’ve spoken with Tyler or me in the last 3 years, you probably know that we don’t like AI mineral exploration – at least the way it’s described today. That doesn't mean we hate AI. We just see a better way. In this article I outline a vision for a future where software and AI make a meaningful impact on discovery. A future where we can actually quantify improvements in exploration beyond a vauge "success rate" metric. A future that genuinely results in discoveries at a pace never seen before. It won't be easy, and we're still at the beginning. But it's possible. And it's coming.

Data-Driven exploration is out. Process-Driven exploration is in.

In today's discourse, we hear a lot about “data-driven exploration”. It sounds futuristic, but the reality is that it's lipstick on a pig. Even the best decisions still take years to execute. The real bottleneck isn’t information. It’s execution. Every step in exploration is fragmented, manual, and slow. Until we rebuild the process itself, no amount of data science will move the needle.

Here's what the process looks like today, using copper as an example.

You're looking for copper? You need to source projects at the right stage, jurisdiction, with the right data, and the right owner. That means manually reviewing PDFs, datasets, and maps of all different formats. Even if you find the right project, you still have to negotiate terms that work for the current owner. This takes months or years.

You have a new project? Get ready to hire ten different service providers to do mapping, geophysics, and geochemistry. The people who collect the geophysics are different than the people who process and interpret the geophysics. Same with the geochemistry. Get your wallet out for three different software tools to handle all the different datasets. Maybe you try a fancy new AI company. And that's before considering the time and energy it takes to coordinate all the teams. It's not uncommon for 2-3 years to pass by the time the prerequisite ground work is done.

Ready to drill? Buckle up for 6-18 months of permitting while your project stagnates. Then, you better hit your target or your shareholders will bring out the pitchforks. Your project might stall for another few years while you convince them that this is part of the process.

This is how you get projects that take five years just to get the first drilling program done. And that's just the first drilling program. It can take several cycles like this before hitting the discovery hole. This timeline has to be shortened to months.

Improve the process, improve humanity.

Copper mining at scale is a relatively new phenomenon. Before the invention of electricity during the Industrial Revolution, there wasn't much need for copper. But now the world is industrializing and electrifying. The demand for copper is greater than ever. But our ability to discover it is eroding.

Treating exploration as a process problem isn't a radical idea. Every business is a collection of processes. And there's a ton of technology to make those processes more efficient. There's customer relationship management software for sales. Accounting software for finance. Real-time video conferencing for team communications.

But somehow mineral exploration is still pen and paper.

There is no unified data model that spans project acquisition through production. Each software package has a proprietary data format that (intentionally) prevents collaboration. None of it works on a Mac.

The incentive structures are all wrong.

The only way to break this cycle is to build from within. An exploration company that also builds software. It's hard to have both skillsets in the same company. But that's exactly what we have at ExploreTech, from the leadership down.

When we achieve our goals, the world won't talk about exploration as a bottleneck anymore. The bottleneck will become our ability to ramp up production on an abundance of discovered resources. The Industrial Revolution will resume.

It's time to get our hands dirty.

Building software that makes exploration faster isn't easy.

It must work in extreme conditions - heat and dust, cold and snow, with limited internet access. It must handle massive datasets - satellite imagery, sensor data, 3D models. It needs the latest science - probability and machine learning, physics, chemistry, and complex, messy geology. All of this connected with a thoughtful, elegant software architecture that enables real-time collaboration between teams at all stages of the exploration process.

Once this is ready, the way we conduct exploration will permanently change. Bigger, faster field teams coordinating in real-time. More like a military operation than a field trip. Bigger, better project portfolios. Faster discovery timelines.

This isn't fiction, either. Our geophysical modeling works. We are already running our first field tests. And we're ramping up quickly.

If you're an engineer or geoscientist that wants to make an impact, come work with us.