b'FeatureMore than oreSo, we know that we need to find and deliver more ore, faster,exploration timelines. 3) Finally, we are looking for new ways and that we need to do it in a way that is sustainable forto see the unseen under-cover. Key to this is understanding generations to come. We also know that this is not a future wethe role of seismic geophysics in a hard rock context. We can create alone. So how do we work to create it? In the followinghave a multi-year programme of work underway to look at sections Ill talk to some of the steps that we are taking at BHP. not only how best to acquire both passive and active seismic programmes, but also to develop the processing algorithms Finding new resources and interpretation methodologies to extract maximum benefit from that data. An exciting example of this work focussed on All of us involved in exploration, know that the easy stuff hasdelineating deep copper resources at our Olympic Dam mine, been found. New resources will either be of lower grade, awas shared by H. Schijns, J. Townsend and K. Ehrig during the processing challenge, or deeper under-cover where geophysicsAEGC (Figure 1). Their presentation showed the integrated use comes into its own. At the same time, we know that a lot of theof petrophysics, feasibility modelling and a proof-of-concept tools we have start to lose resolution below 300 m of cover.acquisition to investigate the optimal path to acquiring and How then do we become more successful at finding newprocessing seismic in a mine environment with steep dips and resources under deep cover than we have been above? This willgradational contacts. This is a representative but challenging be a multi-faceted answer, but at BHP we are focussed on threeenvironment in which to deploy seismic geophysics.key objectives: 1) Changing the way, we think about geophysics. Changing the narrative from one of geophysics for directAt the same time, we need to look for ways to push the limits of targeting, to geophysics as a tool for detecting elements of ourexisting technologies to better discriminate features at depth. mineral systems across scales from global endowment to target,At the AEGC, I shared the results of synthetic modelling as part and aligning our tools and processes to that goal. 2) Lookingof our multi-physics project highlighting the opportunity for for ways to reduce our search space exponentially faster thanimproved discrimination of ore body targets by combining we have done in the past. There are several initiatives underwayinformation from multiple types of physical response in our in our exploration teams to support this goal, from improvedinversions. In the example we showed how adding depth of data management and use of machine learning to analysecover constraints from passive seismic to a joint inversion of our data faster and more comprehensively, to looking at themagnetic susceptibility, conductivity and density resulted in logistics around our geophysical data acquisition. As it currentlya profound improvement in the accuracy of the inversions stands, collecting multiple types of geophysics data fromand almost complete removal of false positives. Similarly, as tenement to target scale can be an exercise spanning manyK. McKenna highlighted in her AEGC presentation, collecting years of fieldwork and requiring multiple rounds of communitypetrophysical data through the cover sequence, something that engagement and permitting. The multi-physics project beingis often neglected in regional exploration, can help us to model run by our exploration team seeks to combine geophysicalthe cover and separate that response from that of the bedrock sensors, and collect data in near real time to transform thosewe are interested in.Figure 1.Results of synthetic seismic modelling and feasibility study for Olympic Dam copper mine. Adapted from H. Schijns etal. 2023.55 PREVIEW APRIL 2023'