EXPLORATION
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Exploration efficiency
The pressure on mining groups is across the board from Tier 1s to juniors, to find and prove up new metallic deposits to meet projected demand. And AI is part of the solution – Paul Moore reports
Mineral exploration comes at a significant cost – and it seems that the industry is becoming more discerning in both the way in which exploration funds are allocated and where the bar is set with regard to results and outcomes. SRK Consulting told IM:“ The limited capital available to explorers is forcing a hypervigilant approach to budget management and efficiency, with almost all explorers surveyed reporting a disciplined approached, regularly auditing and rationalising exploration budgets to ensure they align with specific exploration outcomes. However, exploration success is being held back by a limited understanding of contemporary exploration tools and residual reluctance to engage consultants to help bridge the gaps, particularly when it comes to AI.”
In research carried out by SRK, 93 % of explorers are confident they are rationalising their portfolios and efficiently discarding prospects that show limited potential. Meanwhile, 67 % were regularly auditing their portfolios to ensure they aligns with exploration goals and making adjustments when necessary. Approximately 60 % of explorers are maintaining diligent budget discipline, running regular reviews to ensure capital is aligned with stated objectives. Moving to technology, some 23 % of explorers felt they were fully across modern exploration tools and making consistent use of them. Another 50 % of explorers were mostly across modern tools, but using reputable consultants to bridge any knowledge gaps. However, more than a quarter of explorers were only aware of modern tools and making some use of them; and were still in the process of understanding how consultants could be engaged to make up ground.
Moving to AI, responses were mixed in that some 26 % of explorers expected AI to radically transform exploration in the nearto-medium term. Another 30 % thought AI would transform exploration, but only once the industry fully understood the potential. However, more than a third of explorers felt AI would simply be another tool on which to draw within the mix of supporting methods, equipment and technologies. And no explorers considered themselves fully cognisant of AI opportunities to the point they were leveraging them for exploration success. Meanwhile, 23 % of explorers weren’ t making any active efforts to apply AI and were rather waiting for proof-of-concept before upskilling with AI tools.
Mining industry advisory firm Harbour says that exploration teams are expecting to generally spend between $ 500,000 and $ 5 million on exploration technology, services and tools over the next 12 months, with the concentration of industry budgets around the $ 750,000- $ 1 million window. It says the bigger budgets are, as expected, at the top of the market within the portfolios of companies with market capitalisations of more than $ 1 billion, 40 % of which expect to allocate between $ 1-5 million to exploration technology and services and 10 % of which will spend more than $ 5 million. That logic falls away across the rest of the market, with companies capitalised at $ 500,000 million- $ 1 billion looking to spend around $ 500,000- $ 750,000 against expected spend from the $ 200- $ 500 million bracket of $ 750,000- $ 1 million.
It was a similar story for contract drilling services, with large companies averaging about $ 7.6 million in expected investment. Though in this case, the middle bracket of companies by market capitalisation is also second in terms of expected investment at an average of $ 3.6 million, there isn’ t much daylight between the smaller market segment($ 3.35 million).
“ That $ 200-500 million bracket of companies is still within the true junior category and dedicated to exploring, but is large enough to have market support and so has meaningful budget to support exploration programs,” Harbour Managing Partner Chris Cann told IM.“ That junior-tomid-tier segment is potentially transitioning to development and therefore using precious market-sourced( pre-revenue) income on evaluation of discoveries, rather than exploration. True exploration innovation is therefore likely to come from companies at the top and near the bottom of the market.”
Fleet Space partnerships for AI exploration advances
There have been some notable announcements relating to AI technology use in exploration in the past year, from a number of start up companies who are now focused on the goal of bringing AI to bear on increasing exploration efficiency to speed up significant discoveries in an era of rapidly rising metals demand, especially for so-called critical minerals.
In June 2025, Fleet Space has announced a series of partnerships with mDetect, Nomad Atomics and DeteQt to, it says, expand the technology frontier of the global mining industry by developing the next generation of sensors needed to fuel the growth of AI-powered mineral exploration.
With these partnerships, Fleet Space says it will advance the acquisition and processing speed of geophysical datasets and build an innovation path for muon tomography to become a valuable input for enhancing the geological predictions of modern AI systems, it states.
As part of Fleet Space’ s expansion of its vertically integrated ExoSphere platform, the company is advancing exploration technology development with tech startups
International Mining | FEBRUARY 2026