Fleet Space, AI start-ups partner to build quantum sensor mineral exploration pipeline

[Redator]

Australian space exploration company Fleet Space Technologies announced Wednesday a series of partnerships with innovators mDetect, Nomad Atomics, and DeteQt. 

The collaborations aim to expand the technology frontier of the mining industry by developing the next generation of sensors needed to fuel the growth of AI-powered mineral exploration, the company said. 

mDetect specializes in muon tomography, a passive imaging technique that utilizes naturally occurring particles from space known as muons to create 3D density maps of the subsurface. Nomad Atomics is developing high-precision quantum gravimeters and accelerometers while DeteQt produces patented ‘diamond-on-chip ‘ quantum magnetometers, portable sensors that detect vector magnetic fields. 

Fleet Space said it will advance the acquisition and processing speed of geophysical datasets and build an innovation path for muon tomography to become input for enhancing the geological predictions of modern AI systems. 

As part of its expansion of its ExoSphere platform, the company is advancing exploration technology development with Stanford’s Mineral-X and MIT’s Space Exploration Initiative.

Last year, Barrick tapped Fleet Space’s technology to advance copper exploration at its Reko Diq project in Pakistan, and this year inked a deal with Saudi state miner Ma’aden to deploy ExoSphere across 12,000 km^2 of the Arabian Shield.

“We must build the deep technologies and infrastructure that integrate breakthrough sensing modalities into a unified system,” Fleet Space CEO Flavia Tata Nardini said in a news release. 

 “With our ExoSphere platform, Fleet Space has created the next-generation of satellite-connected geophysical methods while also investing in the development of frontier technologies like quantum gravimetry and muon tomography to enhance the predictive power of AI in exploration on a planetary scale.”