Earth scanning success at Australian lithium exploration project

Fleet Space Technologies (Fleet) has announced the successful completion of a trial using its proprietary Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) technology to faster and non-invasively find critical lithium deposits.

The trial was commissioned by Australia’s newest lithium miner, Core Lithium, at its Finniss Project in the Northern Territory. This is in line with its mission to provide the globe with high-grade lithium suitable to power electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.

Fleet says its ExoSphere technology has been created to answer the urgent global requirement to find a dramatically more sustainable, economically viable and faster route to finding critical mineral deposits. Since introducing ExoSphere technology to the market in Q1 2022, Fleet has been engaged by the world’s leading exploration companies.

Exosphere provides detailed subsurface 3D mapping using an array of Geodes. These devices are portable and lightweight and can be transported and placed by hand. The geodes use edge computing to analyse ambient seismic noise which is sent by Fleet’s network of small satellites for processing. The data is rapidly processed in the cloud to deliver a 3D visualisation of the area to support critical exploration decisions. This makes searching for key energy transition minerals faster, more sustainable, less expensive and more accurate.

In a statement to the ASX (1st August 2022), Core Lithium described the results of the trial as “an outstanding success”, noting an excellent correlation with the pegmatite body interpreted from drilling to depths in excess of 500 m and stating that a number of previously unknown targets have emerged — a major boost for exploration.

“Core Lithium’s Finniss Project is providing world-class drilling results, affirming its status among Australia's most important strategic mineral projects,” said Andy Bennett, Exploration Manager Core Lithium. “Our mission to discover the high-grade lithium required to support the world’s rapid transition to electric vehicles (EVs) has been enhanced by the results generated through ExoSphere. The success of this trial shows the potential of the technology to deliver our next generation of exploration targets and we are excited by the prospect of doing further work with Exosphere.”

ExoSphere survey results.

In completing the successful field trials, ExoSphere says it has proven its viability to support the discovery of the more than $13 trillion in additional energy transition minerals. This figure is stated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as required to meet global net zero targets to enable the transition of vehicles to clean-air powertrains.

Core Lithium’s Finniss Project will be Australia’s newest lithium producer on the ASX Australian Securities Exchange, with first production targeted for Q4 2022. It has been awarded Major Project Status by the Australian Government.

Image: Fleet Space Technology’s Geode, part of the ExoSphere product.