Smart Exploration successfully launched its prototypes and methodologies into the market between the end of February and the beginning of March 2020 during an exploitation tour in Canada. The project representatives introduced the complete package of solutions for deep mineral exploration where potential stakeholders and end-users met at three events in Toronto.
The project and its solutions were first presented on 27 February at the joint workshop organized by Smart Exploration and MERC on Novel Seismics and Electromagnetic Methods for Mineral Exploration with 50 participants. On 29 February the project was introduced to the large KEGS community of nearly 350 delegates at the annual KEGS 2020 PDAC Symposium during the Special EAGE session.
During these events, project coordinator Alireza Malehmir (Uppsala University) provided the audiences with an in-depth overview of the project; Myrto Padoupoulou (Politecnico di Torino) introduced the methodologies and reported the results she and her team reached so far by applying seismic interferometry for mineral exploration; Per Gisseloø (SkyTEM) presented the prototypes and showcased the latest development on the state-of-art EM technology for geophysical surveys.
Smart Exploration was then an active part of the EU activities at PDAC2020. On 1-4 March, the project demonstrated three out of five prototypes which are developed and validated:
- the GPS time-system transmitter jointly developed by BitSim, SGU and Uppsala University
- the electric broadband seismic source developed by Seismic Mechatronics
- the HTEM system developed by SkyTEM
The prototypes caught the eye of many industry representatives and of potential end-users which stopped at the booth with keen interest
On 1 March, our project coordinator presented Smart Exploration at the PDAC Cutting Edge Session to global industry representatives. He also gave a talk at the technical workshop EU Open to the World organized by EASME during which some of the Horizon2020 funded projects presented their new solutions for mineral exploration while discussing how those projects are helping building trust in the extractive industries.
Smart Exploration Project is an ambitious project with state-of-the-art solutions funded under the EU’s Horizon2020 funding scheme. The project develops cost-effective, environmentally-friendly tools and methods for geophysical exploration in highly challenging brownfield and greenfield areas to address ever-increasing community and environmental issues, as well as reduce the return time on investments.
Since the inception of the project, the 27 partners comprising the project consortium have worked together to meet the challenging task of developing solutions for deep mineral exploration. The solutions have been tested and validated under diverse mining conditions (surface, underground, open pit, brownfield, greenfield). Even though these solutions are developed for mineral exploration purposes, they have cross- and multidisciplinary applications and can be used by other industries.