Quantum technologies in mining exploration

Embracing technology fusion and quantum sensing can accelerate mineral discovery

Mining has been a key industry across much of the world for centuries and has evolved a great deal over time. Now, as many of the world’s wealthiest economies begin to pivot away from fossil fuels and seek greener, more efficient sources of energy, the mining industry has taken on even more strategic importance than ever before. Control of key resources has become a vital geopolitical issue. Finding sufficient supplies of these minerals therefore not only determines who gets to extract them, but in some ways may also help to determine who will build the advanced economies of tomorrow first.

The ongoing transition toward electrification of multiple industries, along with the adoption of renewable sources of energy instead of fossil fuels, has created a massive gap between the supply and demand for many kinds of metals and critical minerals. An EY report in 2022 highlighted that demand estimates for the following year indicated a global deficit of 700,000 tonnes of lithium and 4.7 million tonnes of copper at that time. And many expect these numbers to trend upwards. Efficiency and increasing exploration along with high conversion rates from greenfield exploration to operating mines are therefore key to bridging this gap, both from a supply and a cost per unit perspective.

The good news is, there may be solutions available which can help address this problem. The use of multiple types of advanced sensors in combination to cross-correlate different sources of geophysical data can accelerate the identification of drilling targets. Conventional airborne methods such as gravimetry and magnetometry are combined with land-based electromagnetic methods, geological soil sampling methods, and others. Processing and correlating these huge datasets are a key challenge, and we can learn from other industries which have successfully adopted artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning on a large scale to process the data. However, in most cases these approaches leverage historical datasets, in which data resolution and quality can vary drastically. Access to high-quality, high-resolution data is crucial for high depth discoveries, particularly in the context where large, shallow deposits have already been found and developed.

Over the last decade, the advent of drone sensing technologies has provided high-speed, high-resolution data collection in a very efficient timeframe, turning weeks of ground surveys into days. Low altitude drone surveys also help exploration by revealing key data points which could not previously be identified in historical surveys.

As a next step towards this “data fusion” and accelerated exploration, SBQuantum is building a platform to deploy sensors measuring magnetics and gravity from a drone, accelerating the generation of these datasets while significantly improving cost efficiency. Conventional total magnetic field surveys are currently the industry benchmark, providing a single data quantity from which to infer the resource body from inversions. SBQuantum leverages the room-temperature, quantum-based vector readings using its diamond magnetometer technology to perform full tensor magnetic gradiometry, generating eight times more maps which can be fed into inversion or AI software. Combined with gravimetry, these juxtaposed airborne datasets will streamline both the collection of data and its interpretations.

A key consideration when inverting geophysical data is setting appropriate constraints for the inversion to reduce the possible degeneration of the potential solutions. By jointly inverting the gravity and full tensor magnetics data, solutions of this kind will provide enhanced 3D descriptions of the ore bodies, with greater resolution and confidence.

To demonstrate the readiness of our full tensor system, SBQuantum has built and deployed a backpack sized device over nickel ultrafamafic structures. By correlating the tensor magnetic maps, high resolution geologies were revealed and the dipping of the body could be inferred using only tensor data, in a way that cannot be done solely with total magnetic field data. Access to all tensor components also provides a means to highlight additional geologies. Ultimately, combining this with gravity data will further delineate the mineral body, so that drilling can be targeted more effectively, thereby improving drill hit rates. By deploying these geopotential survey techniques on a drone, the geological mapping of a site can be sped up an incredible 10 times, and costs can be cut in half.

Some key advantages quantum sensors provide in this instance include highly accurate measurements, combined with multiple sensing modalities from a single device which is highly efficient in size, weight, and power consumption. SBQuantum has miniaturized its quantum diamond vector magnetometer to a handheld sized device, weighing under one pound, and consuming less than four watts. The sensor can function accurately in conditions ranging from –50°C to +60°C. We have even shown that the sensor will work correctly for low earth orbit.

Though only five years in development, the device’s sensitivity and accuracy relative to DC magnetic fields were demonstrated to be comparable to classical vector fluxgate magnetometers, which unlike quantum sensors are prone to thermal drifts. By early 2025, this technology will surpass the sensitivity and accuracy of some commercially available classical vector magnetometers. Thus, making them an attractive alternative to deliver room-temperature full tensor magnetic gradiometry without deploying bulky cryogenic based platforms.

The capabilities of aerial exploration platforms are also being further developed by adding electromagnetics sensing. Through customizing quantum control pulse sequences, diamond quantum magnetometers can be used to provide electromagnetics mapping capabilities from a sensor 100 times more compact than existing solutions, and therefore making airborne deployment possible. Adding this third non-invasive airborne mapping technique will further enhance the speed, savings and geologically relevant pre-drilling data.

This is only the beginning for quantum technologies in mining exploration. High-resolution multi sensor surveys will be the key to enhanced inversion models, AI-enriched correlations, and improved geological interpretations. This bespoke solution will optimize the yield of drilling campaigns, reduce the timelines for exploration programs, and increase the speed with which new mines can be commissioned. Hundreds of these new mines will be required worldwide to meet the needs of a society driven to achieve its net-zero objectives. We, along with our partners, are doing our part to unlock the potential quantum sensing can provide to the mining sector, enhancing the data quality and resolution to make this a reality near-term.

While this technology is still being developed and will be fully deployed soon, exploration companies may be wise to begin to look at how it could eventually be integrated into their operations over the near- to medium-term. Not only does this technology present the opportunity to help them cut costs significantly as well as identify more deposits to develop, but it also has the potential to help determine who gets scarce resources needed for chips, batteries, electricity production, and other technologies vital to the ongoing digital transformation of every advanced economy. 

David Roy-Guay, CEO and Founder of SBQuantum.

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