Botswana Diamonds' Artificial intelligence-driven multi-mineral prospectivity programme has unveiled seven significant kimberlite targets that have not been previously reported, with one target being identified as being of particularly high interest due to its geological qualities.
The AI work also discovered new compelling polymetallic targets in areas currently unlicenced. Work is ongoing on these new areas of interest which now focuses on four main deposit types and eleven sub types. These deposit types include elements such as gold, copper, silver, nickel, zinc and PGMs. The Company will now assess these opportunities.
Botswana Diamonds' AI programme uses the company’s database with other open-source databases which altogether include over 375,000 km of airborne geophysical and other data, covering many decades of work in Botswana. Data utilised includes geophysics, geological, structural, geochemistry and satellite data.
The Company utilised Planetary AI’s ‘Xplore’ mineral prospectivity platform to perform the detailed analysis. A workflow comprising a combination of AI models was applied in the first instance to understand the data, analyse it and then enrich it. The enriched datasets were then interrogated against Xplore’s proprietary in-house deposit models to identify prospective areas within Botswana in the search for diamonds but also covered several different minerals.
“The identification of seven, previously unreported, anomalies is a major achievement. To discover them in a few short months is a major step forward in mineral exploration. Using AI techniques and powerful computing, almost 400,000 kilometres of airborne geophysical and other exploration data has been analysed and evaluated. It is astounding. Botswana Diamonds is extremely fortunate to have such a vast treasure trove of decades of diamond exploration data in Botswana," said John Teeling, Chairman of Botswana Diamonds.
"We are long-term believers in the diamond prospectivity of Botswana and these results reinforce the belief. We believe more diamond mines will be discovered in Botswana."
Botswana Diamonds PLC is a diamond exploration and project development company that holds exploration licences in Botswana and South Africa.