Steve de Jong, the CEO and co-founder of VRIFY, recently spoke to a captivated audience at Web Summit in Vancouver about how advanced artificial intelligence (AI) could open up huge opportunities in mineral exploration.
De Jong talked about the important changes happening in the industry. He has a background in junior mining as the former CEO and president of Integra Gold and has been working with technology for the past few years. He said that the mineral hunt was not just a billion-dollar chance but a treasure trove worth trillions of dollars waiting to be found.
De Jong started by talking about a common myth: that all “easy-to-find” mineral deposits have already been found. He strongly disagrees with this idea, which assumes that all available data has been used. De Jong says that today’s advanced technologies, especially AI-driven analytics, can use huge amounts of existing exploration data in ways that were never possible before. This can lead to the discovery of large mineral deposits that traditional methods may have missed.
While at Integra Gold, de Jong and the team found the Triangle Zone near Val-d’Or, Quebec. Though the deposit was only two kilometres away from the historic Lamaque and Sigma mines, the Triangle Zone went undiscovered for years as it was sitting under a swamp. The discovery happened in 2012 through the use of technology and data, and now the mine produces 200,000 ounces of gold annually, employing approximately 500 people directly.
De Jong shared another important discovery, the Ormac Zone, which was found while building a tunnel to connect the Triangle Zone to existing infrastructure. This further shows how many opportunities are out there that people don’t know about. The Ormac Zone, which is now worth about $3.5 billion, shows how new methods and smart use of data can lead to big discoveries even in areas that have been well explored.
The idea of Complete Data Utilization (CDU) is at the heart of VRIFY’s approach, and de Jong is a strong supporter of this idea. He said that traditional exploration methods throw away almost 99 percent of the data they collect because people can’t understand large datasets. AI, on the other hand, is great at this job because it can quickly find patterns and connections in huge amounts of data that the human brain can’t fully understand.
De Jong gave several strong examples of how AI could be useful. He talked about how Southern Cross Gold (SXGC), an Australian exploration company, used VRIFY’s AI-assisted mineral discovery platform, DORA, to find new drill targets and expand existing exploration areas. RUA GOLD in New Zealand recently drilled two AI-identified targets and made a big discovery, which caused their stock price to go up by 25 percent.
De Jong also showed what AI can do with an example from Buchans Resources in Newfoundland. In this case, AI identified an area of high-potential mineralization. The data that showed this potential had been around for decades but had not been identified until VRIFY’s AI tools looked at it.
AI does more than just help with discovery; it also drastically speeds up exploration timelines. This lets geologists quickly reevaluate projects under different scenarios and prioritize exploration where data shows the best chance of success. De Jong stressed how important it is for the economy and the environment to find deposits close to existing mining infrastructure. These kinds of discoveries greatly reduce the impact on the environment by making use of existing facilities, processing plants, and waste management systems.
De Jong ended by stressing that AI is a capital advantage. Companies that use AI can attract more investment by making people more sure of their exploration results. This starts a virtuous cycle: more money means more drilling, which makes it more likely that more discoveries will be made.
People were worried that AI would take jobs away, but de Jong said that VRIFY’s growth and the wider use of AI in the industry have actually created more opportunities for geoscience experts. The mining industry is about to enter a new era of mineral exploration that is more efficient, environmentally friendly, and economically important, thanks to the combination of human knowledge and advanced AI.
In the end, de Jong’s background and real-world examples show that the mining industry must evolve by using AI technology, not just as an option but as a key strategy. Exploration teams can greatly improve their ability to unlock the multi-trillion-dollar potential that lies beneath our feet by using advanced AI platforms like VRIFY’s DORA.
