Ideon Technologies says it is delivering actionable exploration targets and geological insights at Fireweed Metals’ Macmillan Pass District in northern Canada ahead of schedule.
This milestone marks a breakthrough in leveraging high-resolution muon imaging and artificial intelligence to unlock the full potential of one of the world’s largest undeveloped primary zinc districts, a highly prospective 985 sq.km land package.
Activated in October 2024, the Ideon REVEAL™ for Exploration solution is mapping density at metre-scale resolution over 1 billion cu.m — all while operating through the Yukon winter and down to depths of 600 m. Halfway through the program, results are already validating key geological hypothesis about the site, confirming mineralisation trends, and identifying new advanced drill targets in anticipation of Fireweed’s summer 2025 exploration campaign, Ideon says.
The subsurface model Ideon generated blindly (ie without any constraining information from the site) using data acquired from muon sensors with large fields-of-view deployed in just three drill holes showed excellent agreement with mineralisation data extracted from 50 holes previously drilled in the area, significantly enhancing understanding of structural trends in the subsurface geology. It also flagged several as-yet-undrilled targets that mirror massive sulphide mineralisation characteristics elsewhere on the site. In a remote region like Macpass, using this technology offers the opportunity to dramatically reduce drilling costs associated with mineralisation validation, Ideon claims.
This news came out on the week of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada annual meet in Toronto, an event where Ideon Technologies CTO & co-Founder, Dr Doug Schouten, presented never-before-shared results from an imaging program Ideon has been undertaking with BHP at Olympic Dam, one of the largest underground metal mines in the world, some 600 km north of Adelaide in South Australia. The demonstration phase of this imaging program is ongoing, with the next steps including moving the detectors out to a more laterally diverse offset to help to map the peripheral parts of the field of view.
“We’re very excited about what we’re seeing in these early results,” Jack Milton, VP Geology at Fireweed Metals, said. “We are gaining actionable intelligence in real time from an imaging solution passively collecting data at site during our off-season – and under many feet of snow. The extent and accuracy of visibility we are achieving from just three holes is game changing, proving that we can use this technique to identify high-priority drill targets without extensive exploratory drilling, improving the cost-efficiency of drilling out deposits in our short seasons on-site, and maximising our chances of exploration success while minimising surface disturbance. We’re already planning where to take this solution next at Macpass.”
Ideon CEO & co-Founder, Gary Agnew, added: “Our REVEAL for Exploration solution allows exploration and mining companies to precisely target and delineate subsurface features, at depth, with minimal drilling. It delivers a high-volume, high-resolution, high-velocity Earth model that reduces geological uncertainty, helping companies like Fireweed Metals accelerate time to discovery, at a lower cost, with greater confidence. What we’re seeing at Macpass is evidence that this solution can reduce the time to fully explore large volumes of Earth by 50% or more, dramatically reducing the drilling required to confidently map and delineate mineralisation.”
The Ideon REVEAL Platform – available for Exploration, Geotech, Resources and Caving – is a subsurface intelligence solution that comprises proprietary hardware (that delivers a new-to-the-world data source) ruggedised for the most remote exploration sites and demanding of noisy in-mine environments, software, integrated imaging systems, and advanced data analysis and interpretation, Ideon says.
Ideon also offers patented multi-sensor fusion capabilities that enable seamless data collection and integration from our proprietary sensors and third-party data. The company’s AI-powered workflow transforms the geological model into a high-resolution dynamic Earth model to inform ongoing operations.