Might 28, 2024 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mineral exploration is as a lot a set of information as a hunt for metals, making it a area completely suited to synthetic intelligence (AI).
Kodiak Copperis on the forefront of the shift to utilization of latest expertise appropriate for higher figuring out new exploration targets and verifying current ones.
The Discovery Group firm is one among simply 4 shoppers beta-testing the VRIFY Synthetic Intelligence focusing on software program on its MPD copper-gold porphyry venture in southern British Columbia.
VRIFY makes use of a mix of deep studying and pc imaginative and prescient architectures to coach predictive fashions with information from varied exploration options like geology, geophysics, drill holes, rock geochemistry, and mineral occurrences. VRIFY’s system then combines information embedding with supervised predictive fashions to generate a prospectivity rating, enabling possible predictions of mineralized areas.
We’ll take a deep dive into how Kodiak is utilizing VRIFY at MPD, however first, an introduction to the corporate and its flagship venture.
Kodiak Copper (TSXV:KDK, OTCQB:KDKCF, Frankfurt:5DD1)
Kodiak Copper was established by chairman Chris Taylor of Nice Bear fame. The founder and CEO of Nice Bear Sources presided over its acquisition by Kinross Gold in 2022 for $1.8 billion. Kodiak, a Discovery Group firm, is led by Claudia Tornquist, beforehand the final supervisor at Rio Tinto, working with Rio’s copper operations. She was additionally the previous director of Kennady Diamonds, main the $176M sale of the corporate to Mountain Province Diamonds.
Jeff Ward as VP Exploration has managed Kodiak’s area applications for the previous six years. The veteran geologist has held senior positions in corporations concerned in grass-roots exploration to superior analysis, useful resource definition and feasibility evaluation. Previous to becoming a member of Kodiak Copper, Ward was president of Kivalliq Vitality, and held a administration place with Ashton Mining/ Stornoway Diamond.
Rounding out the administration staff are Dave Skelton as VP Mission Administration, Nancy Curry as VP Company Improvement, and Emily McNie as Director of Operations & Sustainability.
MPD venture
In 2018 Kodiak acquired 32 mineral claims as a single land bundle, which consolidated three historic prospect areas for the primary time – Man, Prime and Dillard. An adjoining 25 claims have been added in 2021, generally known as MPD South or Axe, with one other 11 potential claims added to the southern venture space in 2023.
The MPD property is surrounded by a number of producing and past-producing mines. The producers are Copper Mountain to the south, Highland Valley within the north, and New Afton, near Kamloops, re-opened by New Gold in 2012.
The venture lies throughout the southern portion of the Quesnel Terrane, British Columbia’s major copper-producing belt.
Historic drilling noticed 384 holes accomplished because the Nineteen Sixties by earlier operators. A lot of the drills examined mineralization from floor, with holes not often testing under 200m depth.
Over the previous 4 years, Kodiak Copper has accomplished 123 drill holes or 74,804 meters.
The corporate tasted success throughout its maiden drill program in 2019, with the invention of the Gate Zone.
In accordance with a venture abstract, 2020 marked the “transformative discovery” of a high-grade copper-gold zone inside a wider mineralized envelope of great measurement on the Gate Zone. The drill intercepts featured the very best grades within the +70-year historical past of the property.
The most effective hit was 535m of 0.49% copper and 0.29 g/t gold, together with 282m of 0.70% copper and 0.49 g/t gold. Inside this part was a good higher-grade 45.7m of 1.41% copper and 1.46 g/t gold.
Massive drill applications in 2021 and 2022 prolonged the Gate Zone to 1 km x 350m, 900m depth and nonetheless open. Drilling continued to spotlight important copper-gold grades over substantial intervals and the Firm discovered a brand new mineralized development parallel to Gate on the Prime Zone (400m x 200m, 750m depth to this point).
2023 exploration
The 2023 program drill-tested a number of targets, aiming to construct vital mass and show MPD’s measurement potential. The mineralization was considerably expanded on the West, Man and South zones. This system confirmed that MPD hosts a number of kilometer-scale mineralized zones, together with mineralization ranging from floor and high-grade intervals.
5 new targets have been recognized – Agie, Leeside, Celeste, Orbit and Comet – bringing the variety of potential areas to 24, of which solely eight have been drilled by Kodiak to this point.
Regional work confirmed important copper-gold porphyry mineralization stretching for 20 kilometers throughout quite a few goal areas, in step with a number of porphyry facilities and highlighting the district-scale potential of the MPD venture.
Two new goal areas are thought of drill-ready: Blue and Celeste.
Kodiak’s 2023 program included the gathering of two,705 soil samples, 57 rock samples, a 3D IP survey over 2.6 sq. kilometers, geological and geotechnical research.
In April of this 12 months, Kodiak Copper reported a new copper discovery on the 1516 Zone, together with closing 2023 drill outcomes.
1516 was the second zone unearthed by Kodiak following its preliminary Gate Zone discovery.
The brand new 1516 Zone is interpreted to be half of a bigger, multi-centered 4.5 sq. km porphyry system that additionally hosts the South, Mid and Adit zones, based mostly on drill core chemistry and historic copper in soils.
Ultimate outcomes from holes drilled in 2023 on the West, South and Man zones infill earlier work and present massive extents of mineralization from floor and to substantial depths. In accordance with Kodiak, these areas proceed to be precedence targets for additional drilling.
2024 plans
The corporate has submitted its plans for 2024 exploration, assisted by VRIFY artificial-intelligence software program, which has generated potential new areas of curiosity (AOI).
In its Might 8 information launch, Kodiak says this system will drill new targets developed by Kodiak’s exploration staff and VRIFY’s predictive modeling, and embrace additional drilling to increase the near-surface mineralization envelopes inside and adjoining to current zones.
Kodiak has recognized 24 drill-confirmed zones and potential goal areas on the MPD venture. As talked about solely eight have seen drilling: Gate, Prime, Man, Dillard, Beyer, 1516, West and South zones.
VRIFY has acknowledged 9 AOIs, both adjoining to recognized copper-porphyry zones (Gamma, Zeta, Epsilon, Lambda, Omega and Sigma), or as new precedence areas (Omicron, Iota and Tau) which advantage follow-up.
Six goal areas warrant new or additional drill testing in 2024: two at MPD North (Belcarra and Blue) and 4 at MPD South (1516, South, Adit and Celeste). The focusing on technique entails the mixing of current information and AI mannequin outcomes.
A drill program of 10,000 meters is deliberate in 2024, centered on a number of drill-ready targets within the MPD North and South venture areas, with the purpose of finding high-grade mineralization in and round recognized zones or making new discoveries.
2024 goal location map
VRIFY
This 12 months’s area program at MPD is exclusive for Kodiak Copper in that synthetic intelligence (AI) is getting used to generate and make sure drill targets.
“I’ve little question that AI will revolutionize mineral exploration by vastly bettering the mixing and analysis of enormous geological information units, thus accelerating drill focusing on, enhancing effectivity and decreasing exploration prices,” CEO Claudia Tornquist stated in a March 4 information launch. She added:
“MPD is effectively suited to AI-enhanced exploration as it’s a treasure trove of information, with Kodiak’s intensive venture database complemented by historic data spanning many many years.”
The latter is a vital distinction to make about VRIFY and different AI focusing on software program.
In a panel dialogue at this 12 months’s PDAC in Toronto, Franco-Nevada founder and chair emeritus Pierre Lassonde stated AI has the potential to revolutionize the exploration course of, however he added a caveat. To be efficient, it wants a number of information from drill applications and assay outcomes.
Additionally, whereas AI is thrilling for juniors with extra superior properties, it isn’t precisely new to the mining trade. On the PDAC convention, Kodiak’s Chairman & former president and CEO of Nice Bear Sources Chris Taylor stated the corporate’s use of machine-learning instruments was instrumental in making the Dixie gold deposit discovery in Ontario.
“Each geologist that I do know, each individual that was instrumental within the Nice Bear discovery, was already doing each pc modeling and interpretation and conventional area geology. So it is not like there is a dichotomy. These are instruments that we have been utilizing for a very long time,” Taylor stated throughout a panel hosted by VRIFY’s CEO Steve de Jong.
Particularly, geographic data system (GIS) applications corresponding to Esri’s ArcGIS have been used to assist mannequin exploration information because the mid-Eighties.
In an article on AI and mining, Investing Information Community studies, The info modeling instruments utilized by Nice Bear are nonetheless broadly employed within the mining trade, however are starting a brand new part of evolution as AI and machine studying are extra broadly adopted and extra intently built-in into GIS instruments.
So how is Kodiak Copper utilizing VRIFY, and the way efficient has it been? Throughout a latest discuss with AOTH, VP Mission Administration, Dave Skelton stated the corporate began working with VRIFY by handing over all of its information – together with data from geophysical surveys, geochemical surveys and mapping. VRIFY then crunches the shopper’s information to “be taught” about recognized mineralization, after which “predicts” new areas of curiosity.
VRIFY works by including extra “layers” corresponding to topography and geology, and thru a studying course of, deciphers what options are answerable for, in Kodiak’s case, copper mineralization.
Kodiak ran a wide range of regional and native iterations with the AI software program: copper, copper-molybdenum, and copper-gold. Skelton stated the software program collates dozens of layers of information, one thing he urged can be troublesome and time consuming for a human area crew.
“We are able to discuss one or two or three of those completely different layers or options fairly simply however we will not discuss 30. We now have 33 in probably the most data-dense areas and so it is generated a number of dialogue about why is the AI seeing one thing in a sure space and never in one other?”
VRIFY is doing two issues for Kodiak Copper: it’s validating anomalies already discovered, and it’s producing new areas of curiosity to be adopted up on.
“It is vital to know that these VRIFY targets usually are not drill targets, they’re actually areas of curiosity, as a result of the AI appears to be like in any respect of these completely different parameters and thinks that there is one thing there. There is a motive for it to choose it nevertheless it’s not a drill goal instantly, since you most likely should feed a bit extra information into it to agency that up,” Skelton stated.
In different phrases, VRIFY doesn’t exchange, however compliments boots-on-the floor mapping, prospecting, pattern taking, and geophysical surveys.
“We’d find yourself doing extra geophysics for instance or possibly extra soil geochem as a result of that is what it thinks is vital in these areas,” stated Skelton, clarifying he would not sink a drill gap into an space of curiosity generated by AI alone.
Kodiak Copper’s 2024 exploration program, for instance, envisions 25 line kilometers of 3D IP (induced polarization) and a 2,000-sample soil geochemical survey.
Tornquist stated she’s enthusiastic about utilizing VRIFY due to its potential for accelerating the exploration course of.
“For those who look again the final couple of years we recognized two or three new targets or areas of curiosity per 12 months with sampling, mapping and prospecting, so it is fairly a sequential course of,” she stated, “Whereas after we threw extra pc energy at it the AI highlighted 9 areas of curiosity. We are able to now verify these out, decide that are probably the most potential and work on them first. Had we performed it within the standard means we’d have gotten to those self same 9 areas, nevertheless it may need taken us three to 4 years and we’d have discovered the perfect one solely in 12 months three. To have extra areas of curiosity recognized proper from the beginning via the AI work is in my thoughts is a really invaluable train,” she stated.
Screenshot of VRIFY AI 3D geo-targeting mannequin at MPD North displaying
5 new potential areas.
p>ICP
Synthetic intelligence is not the one new expertise that Kodiak Copper is attempting out this 12 months.
In Might, the corporate contracted ICP Securities to supply automated market making companies, together with use of its proprietary algorithm, ICP Premium™.
It is no secret that junior useful resource corporations have been damage by so-called “algo” merchants who use advanced algorithms to purchase and promote blocks of shares. Typically the algorithm “shorts” the inventory, that means it locations a guess on the share worth dropping.
In accordance with ICP’s web site, Market makers are monetary corporations or people that stand prepared to purchase and promote securities at publicly quoted costs. They supply liquidity to the market by repeatedly quoting bid and ask costs and facilitating buying and selling exercise. In essence, market makers act as intermediaries between consumers and sellers, guaranteeing that there’s a clean circulation of buying and selling out there.
“Primarily they’re a ‘pleasant’ algorithm that trades on behalf of the corporate and the corporate’s curiosity to counter-balance any detrimental algo buying and selling that there may be, like anybody who’s attempting to quick you, or enjoying video games out there.” Tornquist defined.
Conclusion
The info:
- Kodiak has a confirmed monitor document of creating a number of discoveries with out new VRIFY AI
- Administration “has been there and performed that” ie. Taylor, Robins and Tornquist’s confirmed success
- Innovation – utilizing market-makers like ICP to guard shareholders
- Know-how – utilizing artificial-intelligence software program like VRIFY that makes use of machine-learning to generate areas of curiosity on a mining property, means Kodiak Copper has positively set itself other than different juniors via its embrace of expertise
- Proper individuals, proper venture, proper location, proper time
I like expertise, I like the very fact KDK is embracing predictive AI, and I’ll, presumably with a number of others, be watching intently to see how VRIFY performs at Kodiak Copper’s MPD venture this summer season. Success may imply a technological breakthrough not often seen in our trade.
However let’s not take our eyes off what’s actually vital…
Proper individuals, proper venture, proper location, proper time
Kodiak has made discovery after discovery in important copper-gold porphyry mineralization stretching for 20 kilometers with quite a few goal areas, in step with a number of porphyry facilities that highlights the district-scale potential of the MPD venture.
A drill program of 10,000 meters is deliberate in 2024, centered on a number of drill-ready targets within the MPD North and South venture areas, with the purpose of finding high-grade mineralization in and round recognized zones or making new discoveries.
Kodiak Copper
TSXV:KDK
Cdn$0.58 2024.05.23
Shared Excellent 64.1m
Market cap Cdn$37.1m
KDK web site
Richard (Rick) Mills
aheadoftheherd.com
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