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August 20, 2024

Power Nickel Deploys ExoSphere to Drive New Insights in Chile’s Copper Belt

Power Nickel, one of Canada’s leading metal exploration companies, has expanded their use of Fleet Space’s end-to-end mineral exploration solution, ExoSphere, to drive new geological understanding of their projects along Chile’s Atacama Fault System. With deployments across Power Nickel’s Zulema, Palo Negro, and Tierra de Oro projects - ExoSphere identified significant faulting in all three areas in addition to new insights about geological structures and geophysical anomalies in the region. The results have enhanced Power Nickel’s targeting with extensive 3D mapping of their properties in the heart of Chile’s Atacama Desert.  

“Deployments of ExoSphere in Chile’s copper belt and the world’s most prolific copper producing regions is yielding compounding geological insight into the mineral systems that underpin the formation of these deposits.” said Flavia Tata Nardini, CEO & Co-Founder of Fleet Space Technologies. “The speed, depth, and cross-scale capability of ExoSphere’s real-time 3D subsurface imaging is not only enhancing the geological understanding of major copper regions in isolation, but also the commonalities between them. This is rapidly accelerating mineral systems knowledge and delivering a more holistic geological context needed to scale and enhance the success rates of data-driven copper exploration globally. Fleet Space is thrilled to bring the latest advances in space technology, 3D multiphysics, and AI to drive faster and more sustainable outcomes in partnership with Chile’s dynamic exploration industry.”

Power Nickel’s development of its NISK project in Quebec, Canada has paved the way for the company to apply similar strategies, operations, and advanced technologies to unlock the exploration potential of 50,000 acres of the company’s projects across Chile’s copper belt. On their journey to build the NISK project into the world’s first carbon neutral poly metallic mine, Power Nickel maintains a rigorous standard for the exploration techniques they deploy, ensuring they align with the company’s ESG charter and ambitious exploration timelines. This led them to use the real-time 3D mapping capabilities of ExoSphere at NISK to enhance exploration outcomes and unlock sustainability benefits across their operation, identifying several new targets as a result.

“The simplified end-to-end data journey enabled by ExoSphere’s real-time 3D subsurface data acquisition, satellite-enabled data processing, and rapid delivery of targeting insights has taken our data-driven exploration strategies to new heights while also delivering more sustainable outcomes pivotal to our company’s mission,” said Power Nickel CEO, Terry Lynch. “Learning from our deployments at NISK, we are applying these powerful new technologies to unlock efficiencies and identify targets at unprecedented speed, scale, and depth across our Chile portfolio to stay at the forefront of advances in global copper exploration.”

Power Nickel and Fleet Space understand the fundamental role of mineral systems thinking and structural architecture in copper exploration. ExoSphere’s unique ability to image structures from the large-scale to the tenement and deposit-scale in 3D makes it highly useful for mapping crustal architecture - a critical part of all copper exploration programs. Located just 30km from the world-class La Candelaria copper-gold deposit, Power Nickel’s Zulema project shares similar geology comprising 10,000+ acres in the Atacama mineral belt. Using ExoSphere, Power Nickel aims to develop a higher resolution understanding of the structures and potential magnetic features across their projects to zero in on target zones with potential hydrothermal activity and mineralisation.

Satellite picture showing Chile's Atacama Desert and the Atacama Fault parallel | Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The deployment of ExoSphere on Power Nickel’s projects in Chile builds on the rapid global adoption for Fleet Space’s solution among top exploration companies operating in many of the world’s leading copper regions. Barrick Gold recently used ExoSphere across 1,150 Km² of their Reko Diq project in Pakistan to generate 3D subsurface maps of copper porphyry complexes for multiple zones of interest. Encompassing over 1818 Km² of projects in Australia’s premiere copper province, Fleet Space also conducted the world’s largest real-time Ambient Noise Tomography survey across Inflection Resources’ tenements in the Macquarie Arc. Fleet Space also helped identify multiple previously unknown large-scale targets for Eagle Mountain at their Silver Mountain project in Arizona within the Laramide Arc.

Powered by Fleet Space’s satellite constellation in low Earth orbit, patented smart seismic sensors, and AI engine, ExoSphere integrates data acquisition, processing, and insight delivery into a single end-to-end solution. Leveraging the real-time 3D mapping capabilities and AI-powered insights - ExoSphere enables exploration companies to enhance the quality, speed, and effectiveness of their targeting decisions while also helping to unlock more sustainable outcomes across the mineral exploration value chain. Global adoption of ExoSphere has propelled Fleet Space’s exponential growth over the past year, including a A$50 million Series C funding round, doubling the company’s valuation to A$350 million; the deployment of a lunar variant of ExoSphere on the Moon in 2026; and recognition as Australia’s fastest growing company.

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