Fleet Space – Australia's leading space company – has signed a new contract to provide its ExoSphere satellite-based mineral exploration services to ASX-listed miner Core Lithium.

Announcement of the 12-month partnership, effective from May 2023, was made this week at the International Mining & Resources Conference (IMARC) in Sydney. 

The new partnership follows Core Lithium’s recent opening of the Finniss Lithium Mine, and capital raising with a strong focus on exploring its lithium projects. It follows completion of successful large-scale survey trials at Core’s Finniss Project (NT).

ExoSphere sustainably accelerates critical mineral exploration by scanning the Earth with advanced, low-impact sensors (Geodes) connected to the cloud through Fleet Space’s low-power satellite network.

“A huge step forward for Australia’s entire mineral industry”

“This new contract with Core Lithium marks a huge step forward, not just for our respective companies but for Australia’s entire mineral industry,” remarked Matt Pearson, Co-Founder & Chief Exploration Officer at Fleet Space Technologies. “Global demand for high-grade lithium is growing exponentially, driven by rapid developments in electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy storage. Core is at the forefront of developing this critical resource, through its flagship Finniss Project near Darwin. We’re delighted that having proved so successful in its trials this year, our pioneering satellite-based technology, ExoSphere, will be fully deployed on Core’s tenements across the NT. This is a fantastic opportunity to support and accelerate Core’s vision to become a major lithium producer.” 

 

Andy Bennett, Exploration Manager at Core Lithium, highlighted his company’s status as one of the first to embrace Fleet’s ExoSphere technology, and the first to use it successfully in lithium exploration. “Core sees huge potential for ExoSphere to provide robust new targets, and focus drilling into the most prospective areas,” he informed. “Core considers that ExoSphere is an innovative new approach to exploration and looks forward to continuing a successful partnership with Fleet Space.”

 

ExoSphere to accelerate Core’s lithium exploration activities

 

The 12-month agreement – signed by Flavia Tata Nardini (co-founder and CEO of Fleet Space) and Gareth Manderson (CEO at Core Lithium) – which comes into effect in May 2023, will see Fleet’s pioneering satellite-based mineral exploration system, ExoSphere, deployed across Core’s tenements in the Northern Territory. Core was also successful in applying for the co-funding of a tenement-wide deployment of Exosphere at its Shoobridge Project in 2022, under Round 15 of the Geophysics and Drilling Collaborations programme.

 

This follows successful results of a collaborative trial between Core Lithium and Fleet Space Technologies at the BP33 prospect. In August 2022, the company jointly announced the successful conclusion of survey trials. In a statement to the ASX (dated 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 500m’ and stating that ‘a number of previously unknown targets have emerged – a major boost for exploration.’

 

Core is using ExoSphere to accelerate its lithium exploration activities, in line with its vision to provide high-grade lithium for electric vehicle (EV) and renewable energy storage applications worldwide. 

 

The successful discovery of lithium, cobalt, copper and nickel is therefore essential to the global transition to clean-air mobility. Global EV demand cannot be met unless the pace of discoveries dramatically increases. The World Economic Forum states that the world’s battery capacity must grow 40 times larger than today to meet capacity demands.

Rapidly delivering detailed, 3D subsurface images

 

Developed by Fleet Space at its headquarters in Adelaide, Australia, ExoSphere is a pioneering exploration system that delivers detailed, 3D subsurface images in days rather than months required using conventional techniques. An array of satellite-enabled geophones – known as Geodes – use edge computing to analyse ambient seismic noise collected by Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT). Geodes are up to 10 times more sensitive than existing nodal geophones, increasing both accuracy and depth of results. This data is then rapidly processed and transmitted through Fleet’s low power satellite network.

 

Crucially, what ExoSphere can do for Core, by enabling direct detection of pegmatites, is to increase the probability of success in drilling, resulting in less drilling, less cost, less time to discovery and less environmental disturbance. 

 

The contract includes the Geodes, planning and deployment support, and real-time processing and delivery of 3D shear velocity models for one year.