Energy Transition: Value of Cross-Pollination between Oil & Gas and Mining

Geologist Junior Potgieter shares his experience of 18 years in project delivery across the two sectors and looks at the benefits of knowledge sharing.

Junior, how do you compare the two industries? 

I’ve worked for consultancies and service companies involved in conventional and unconventional oil & gas and mining exploration around the world and noticed several interesting differences. 

For example, the oil & gas industry has for decades focused on getting the absolute maximum information from all surveys and wells. Mining, in comparison, has drilled millions of boreholes only for them to be sealed up afterward with drill core as the only data collected. 

To me this represents an opportunity; widening the use of wireline logging and core scanning systems could dramatically increase the information value of each borehole. Oil & gas also employs semi-regional play-based evaluations very effectively to assess large areas for their exploration potential quickly and accurately. This approach could be very useful in mineral exploration when assessing geological provinces. 

How can knowledge sharing benefit the mining industry?

I believe that cross-pollination of ideas between the two industries can help to drive forward safe and efficient operations. This is partly why I joined Viridien. It is in a unique position where the geoscience learnings and technology it has built up over many decades to support the oil & gas industry can be adapted for application in the minerals world to streamline the exploration process.

Before joining Viridien’s Minerals & Mining team, I worked with Viridien as a client on several projects. My crossover from the role of client to service partner has given me the opportunity to add insights on the value of data offerings in project decision-making. As I see it, the pathway to success is one of operator and service partner collaboration.

In my current role, as a technical specialist, I connect the dots between mining challenges and the services we offer. For me, the way forward in mining is only achievable if we actively promote innovative, out-of-the-box thinking, the integration of data and clearly report the results and insights to clients. 

What kind of geoscience skills are transferrable? 

Viridien’s biggest strength for the mining sector is taking data from a wide range of sources and using practical industry expertise to transform it into actionable intelligence, global to asset scale. This is possible through our capability to extract and process large datasets, be it literature, geophysics, remote sensing or drilling records, ready for our geoscience and data science specialists to add their insights. Our TailingsPulse™ mine monitoring solution is a prime example of this, where we utilize data from spaceborne, airborne and in situ measurement tools to create integratable information that provides actionable intelligence to mine operators for more responsible storage of mine waste. 

As mining activity ramps up to support the energy transition, safe and effective management of mine waste held in Tailings Storage Facilities (TSF) will be critical to ensure the industry achieves its sustainability goals and meets regulatory requirements. TailingsPulse was designed specifically around measurements that can be used to monitor subtle changes in the behavior of a TSF, enabling the operator to act and ultimately prevent failures like we witnessed at Jagersfontein (South Africa) recently. 

What challenges lie ahead for the industry? 

The mining industry has entered a stage where the volume of data collected is starting to exceed traditional handling capabilities, and as such we may not be realizing the full value of all the available information. By harnessing Viridien’s high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities, and combining them with our geoscience knowledge, we have the power to extract every ounce of value from client-held data. 

Learn more about Viridien’s science for mining at viridiengroup.com/mining