Gold explorer Barton Gold and ASX-listed SensOre have inked a term sheet to form a strategic research and development partnership focused on the Gawler Craton.
The deal will see SensOre serve up targets to the explorer using its artificial intelligence, or ‘AI’ technology to then be validated by the drill. The mineral targeting company stands to benefit in the form of royalties for any gold or copper produced.
SensOre aims to adapt and refine its AI machine-learning technologies for an area surrounding Barton’s operations.
Specifically, the exclusive partnership will trial the generation of targets using SensOre’s discriminant predictive targeting, or ‘DPT’ method.
Barton Gold Managing Director Alexander Scanlon, said: “Successful trials will further strengthen Barton’s regional strategic advantage with exclusive rights to the DPT technology for gold and copper over ~15 per cent of the Gawler Craton, as we accelerate and consolidate a major new gold district.”
Impressively, the target generation aims to locate gold and copper mineralisation in an expansive 60,000 square kilometres of the central Gawler Craton.
The partnership reflects Barton’s commitment to large-scale development through innovation-driven exploration.
The deal includes Barton contributing $45,000 to the development of regional prospectivity mapping and up to a further $350,000 for development of DPT applied to the target area.
During that development, Barton will work with SensOre to integrate Barton’s extensive datasets into the SensOre’s South Australian ‘data cube’ to refine and further train the DPT targeting engine.
Finally, under the partnership, Barton will drill test and validate the predicted zones.
Further terms of the agreement include Barton’s entitlement to exclusive use of the South Australian DPT module within the initial 60,000 square kilometre area.
Barton says the two companies will now move to prepare a detailed binding agreement incorporating the terms already agreed, along with other standard conditions. In the meantime, the company will hand over its initial contribution and work with SensOre to prepare for the upcoming development and trialling.
Machine learning and AI-driven exploration is an emerging industry and for now, SensOre appears to have only a handful of contemporaries. On Australia’s east coast, the AI-focused start-up OreFox was deployed mid last year to sniff out further value from QMines’ Mount Chalmers deposit.
Abroad, Kobald Metals is attempting to accelerate the discovery of new battery-metal deposits by creating its own ‘Google Maps’ of the Earth’s crust using artificial intelligence. Interestingly, the company was founded in November 2018 and is notably backed by global business titans Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
Interest will be mounting to see if the innovative partnership makes the mineralised pie larger for those involved. Watch this space.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
