Tuesday, 29 July, 2025 / Edition 69

Most of us got into the science because we want to traipse around outside, smash a few unsuspecting rocks, and learn a thing or two. Our tools often span the most basic things though. It’s not uncommon for a college-level Structure class to include a materials list that reads like a kindergartner’s, complete with scissors, colored pencils, and Play-Doh.

With such basic tools, it can be jarring to realize that our work also benefits greatly from cutting-edge technology available today including AI all the way to the boundaries of manufacturing and habitat pressure control that can take us under the sea. We get into two such examples today. Let’s dive in!

Sarah Compton

Editor, Enspired

AI Comes for Your Core

Образцы керна/Wikipedia

Say what you will about AI-driven mineral ID and core analyses, but BHP and Rio Tinto are hopping aboard the AI train.

What’s the scoop: GeologicAI announced a $44 million Series B funding round on July 17th that included the two mining giants and was led by Blue Earth Capital.

Catch up fast: The company has news articles from about three years ago, including a series A funding round boosted by a $10 million contribution from Export Development Canada (EDC).

GeologicAI combines standard core analyses like XRF, hyperspectral analyses, and RGB imaging with AI-powered algorithms to give logging results 4x faster than manual logging with a 24-48 hour turnaround time.

Speedy and accurate: The fast and accurate turnaround time can accelerate projects up to 400% and frees up the geoscientists to do what we love doing: interpret results.

Customer testimonial: Bill Pearson, EVP of Exploration at Eloro Resources, Ltd. said "This amazing technology will be a game changer for Iska Iska and allow us to more efficiently track metal and mineral zonation.”

A tale of two industries: My LinkedIn newsfeed tells a tale of two separate industries, one where there is an apparent lack of trained geoscientists to work mines and another where there is a lack of jobs for trained geoscientists to do.

The disparity often lies in expectations:

• Work in mining means working on-site and many mines are in remote areas.

• The pay might not line up with other resource-based industries like oil and gas.

• Remote work/life plus “low pay” isn’t necessarily conducive to the family life many geoscientists have decided they’re no longer willing to compromise on.

Bringing it all together: Human-driven core analyses can be time consuming and housing/feeding a human can be expensive. It's not hard to see the appeal of a machine doing the bulk of the grunt work if it can do so accurately.

Disruptor: The VP of Ventures at BHP, Laurel Buckner, said, “GeologicAI is addressing one of the mining’s sector’s most pressing challenges…Their game-changing technology is disrupting traditional, time – and cost – intensive workflows with AI-powered analytics and modeling solutions. This technology has the power to reshape how we discover, evaluate and source ore bodies.”

But also stabilizer: The Head of Growth and Ventures at Rio Tinto, Pekka Santasalo, was more even more specific, “Their high-resolution approach and real-time data capabilities have the potential to transform how we think about project development timelines and risk.” 

Learn more: To get more info on the funding round and GeologicAI in general, go here.

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Life Beneath the Waves Closer to Reality

klyaksun/Shutterstock

For aspiring explorers and adventurers, it can seem like 2025 is not a great year to be born unless you want to be an astronaut, but there’s plenty of opportunity for exploration and discovery beneath the ocean waves.

Off the map: More than 80% of our ocean is unexplored, and an alliance to protect sea life called Ocean Census recently claimed nearly 900 previously unknown species were discovered in just 10 expeditions.

Hostile environment: The reason we know so little is that it’s an understatement to say the underwater environment is not conducive to human life.

Decompression tap dance: We need oxygen to survive and can only go so deep before we need pressurized suits to protect our fragile bodies from crushing hydrostatic pressure. But as we pressurize dive, our bodies increase the absorption of nitrogen, making depressurization a tricky, life-threatening process.

What’s being done: Decreasing the number of pressurizing and depressurizing cycles is key to increasing human ability to work in the deep sea. Enter British company DEEP, Ltd.

Why it matters: We don’t know what we don’t know about our oceans, but we do know keeping humans on the sea floor more permanently could help with a variety of logistics like upkeep of critical infrastructure like subsea cables (as just one example).

What's next: DEEP’s Sentinel System is set to deploy in two years and will allow both short-term and semi-permanent deployments anywhere along the continental shelf.

Sentinel combines a plethora of technology to achieve its goal:

• Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing efficiently creates the structures that are needed to support the forces constantly at work to crush the habitat.

• Modular components allow built-for purpose designs and layouts to accommodate deployments spanning a variety of timelines.

• Panoramic viewports really smash the perception given in the movie The Abyss where subsea habitats would allow only small glimpses of the outside through small portholes.

Testing the waters: The company is launching Vanguard to test its mettle before Sentinel hits the seas. In June it headed to Kishorn Port in the Scottish Highlands to pressure test the Vanguard hull.

According to DEEP’s website, “Vanguard is the precursor to the larger Sentinel system. It’s a three-person crew, expedition class habitat, designed primarily for shorter-term missions such as training, reconnaissance, and recovery.”

Part of that world: We geoscientists are aware of the opportunities, both for us professionally and humanity in general. This opens up across industry, government, and academia once the continental shelf is a viable option for long-term human habitation, including deep sea drilling.

To learn more about DEEP, go here.

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