SensOre Ltd says it has reached an agreement to acquire Intrepid Geophysics, a provider of geophysics software and services headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.

The deal, valued at around A$5 million ($3.4 million) will be primarily funded through the issue of new fully paid ordinary SensOre shares.

Intrepid Geophysics’ advanced automated geophysical software and geoscience expertise complement SensOre’s existing suite of machine learning and artificial intelligence-based mineral exploration software products and technology offerings, it said, adding that Intrepid Geophysics’ large client base and strong cashflows were integral to its strategic assessment of the transaction.

SensOre Chief Executive Officer, Richard Taylor, said: “Acquiring Intrepid Geophysics is a major opportunity for us. Intrepid Geophysics’ deep geoscience and machine-learning expertise in geophysics complements SensOre’s geochemistry and economic geology focus for targeting in mineral exploration. Demand for advanced geophysics software is strong and deployable globally.

“Intrepid Geophysics’ years of product leadership, data collation and collaboration with government geological surveys will benefit SensOre’s data platform development and client service offerings. We are looking forward to integrating Intrepid Geophysics’ exceptional talent with our team of innovators.”

Intrepid Geophysics Managing Director, Dr Desmond Fitzgerald, added: “The combination of SensOre and Intrepid Geophysics will unlock growth opportunities in a strong market for high-level exploration targeting. We look forward to being part of a growing and exciting geoscience group.”

SensOre and Intrepid Geophysics completed a successful pilot project in Victoria in the June quarter, confirming the technological synergies and product complementarity between the two companies, it said. The results of the pilot are expected to be deployed with clients in the September quarter, focused on the Stawell and Ballarat gold corridors. There is strong interest from prospective clients within these corridors, according to SensOre.

SensOre says its strategy has been to organise all of Australia’s geoscience data within its proprietary data cube technology, with the acquisition of Intrepid Geophysics significantly advancing that capability.

The deal also expands SensOre’s mineral exploration technology sector presence and exposure, with the deal seeing the company acquire a second team of dedicated geoscience professionals with cross-over expertise in the oil and gas, groundwater, geothermal and the emerging hydrogen storage sectors.

“In acquiring Intrepid Geophysics, SensOre gains access to multiple new targeting and decision-based proprietary technologies and strategic decision-based services using 2.5 dimension Airborne Electro-Magnetic inversion technology, tensor gradient technology, geology from geophysics feature extraction, and service automated workflows,” the company added.

These technologies, SensOre says, fill a gap in its product suite by incorporating geophysics products that take exploration targeting from the macro-focused Prospectivity Modelling and Discriminant Predictive Targeting® approach into drill target delineation in three dimensions.

Intrepid Geophysics’ software portfolio includes:

• Intrepid 3D – an airborne and ground geophysical data processing and interpretation package;
• Moksha-EM – an airborne electromagnetic full waveform inversion data processing and interpretation package;
• Argus – a 3D geological modelling package with a tightly integrated geophysical forward and inverse modelling capability;
• JetStream II – a web-based, spatially searchable data catalogue that enables geoscientists to quickly assess the coverage, type and vintage of georeferenced spatial data held over any given area; and
• Sea-g Marine Gravity – a fully featured marine gravity processing application powered by Intrepid Geophysics technology for on-cruise and post-cruise use.