Minerva Intelligence says its Cognitive artificial intelligence-powered prospect generation software, TARGET, has helped Giga Metals identify and evaluate new prospective exploration targets at the Parnaiba Basin project in Nordeste, Brazil.

Giga, after validating the results produced by Minerva’s TARGET software, made the decision to acquire exploration permits covering significant new regional sediment-hosted copper anomalies along the southern perimeter of the Parnaíba Sedimentary Basin in southern Piauí State, Northeast Region, Brazil, it said.

This amounted to the staking of 24 exploration permits totalling 40,722 ha in four properties along 80 km of strike length in an area with known “Kupferschiefer-style” sediment-hosted copper mineralisation.

Scott Tillman, CEO of Minerva Intelligence, said: “The commercial validation of our TARGET software is yet another indication of the power of Minerva’s Cognitive AI-powered software.

“The successful deployment of our TARGET software highlights the value we are able to provide to companies that are managing large datasets and seeking to incorporate an artificial intelligence element into the decision-making process. Our success with Giga in Brazil, in conjunction with our recent success in Mexico, points to even greater success in the future in delivering results for mining and exploration companies around the world.”

Using Minerva’s TARGET software, Giga was able to sift through, organise and evaluate large datasets that were subsequently used to analyse the validity of the prospective exploration region, Minerva explained. TARGET’s mapping technology was able to determine, based on existing comprehensive datasets, that the project in Brazil had a high likelihood of success and, as a result, Giga should pursue investment in the region.

The final result of the analysis was a list of AI-produced target areas throughout Brazil that are completely auditable and explainable, and, most importantly, actionable by Giga, Minerva said.

Giga Metals CEO, Mark Jarvis, said: “TARGET enabled us to work our way through an immense volume of regional geological data to focus on areas prospective for the deposit types of interest to us. This is a type of regional survey that was previously possible only for a major mining company with a large team of geologists. It is exciting to experience at first-hand how artificial intelligence is now making this type of survey accessible to smaller companies.”

Jake McGregor, Minerva’s COO, added: “In 2019, Minerva was contracted by Giga to build a set of prospectivity maps for the country of Brazil. In this capacity, the company compiled various datasets from across the country, both from public and private sources, and significant work was undertaken by Minerva to standardise and translate the data from Portuguese to English, and then into the standard terminologies that we use in our mineral deposit models. It is extremely rewarding to see our clients getting value out of that hard work.”