New workflow for resource models for tailings facilities developed and verified

The results of the ADRIANA research project were presented in two workshops in Erdenet and Ulaanbataar in October and discussed with the Mongolian partners. With the two project meetings in Mongolia, the ADRIANA project came to its official conclusion. Under the leadership of G.E.O.S., the partners Dimap Spectral GmbH, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), Erdenet Mining Corporation, German Mongolian Institute of Technology, Erdenet Institute of Technology, CBM Consulting and CBM Gesellschaft für Consulting, Business und Management mbH worked together on new methods of remote sensing for the quantification of valuable materials in tailings and waste rock piles.

In the project, very remarkable results were achieved. For example, it could be shown that a detailed and resilient resource model could be developed for the approximately 20 square kilometre tailings facility from the copper processing in Erdenet. This was done solely on the basis of historical data from the processing and historical satellite data as well as current hyperspectral remote sensing data. This model was verified in detail by drilling. With the workflow developed at ADRIANA, it is possible to develop detailed and resilient resource models of tailings facilities worldwide with little exploration effort and thus create the preliminary requirements for a possible use of these resources.

In ADRIANA, the researchers from MLU have shown for the first time that it is possible to measure even low metal concentrations with high accuracy on the basis of hyperspectral remote sensing data. This opens up completely new perspectives for hyperspectral remote sensing.

The data acquired during ADRIANA were also used to impressively demonstrate the CoreSmart predictor (developed by G.E.O.S. in close cooperation with Dimap outside the ADRIANA project) on remote sensing data. CoreSmart is based on artificial intelligence and is able to predict metal concentrations in drill cores based on hyperspectral scans. It has now been shown that CoreSmart also works reliably with hyperspectral remote sensing data and this even without site-specific training data.

The results were published in several scientific papers.

Since a number of other important results were achieved, the partners want to continue the cooperation in the field of resource exploration and assessment.

The ADRIANA project is a collaborative project under the programme "CLIENT II - International Partnerships for Sustainable Innovation" in the framework programme "Research for Sustainable Development - FONA³". The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.