Unlocking Africa's Exploration Potential
Ria Tinnion and Kevin Fisher of Geosoft Africa discuss the impact that data and
modern technology is making

Carmela Burns

Resilience, innovation and effective application of data and modern technology are all playing a part in unlocking Africa's vast exploration potential. Since opening its doors in 2000, Geosoft Africa has experienced firsthand both the challenges and rewards of supporting exploration on a continent notorious for its instability and poor infrastructure.

Today, the Geosoft Africa team is helping to support a growing community of exploration companies active in the region, and Government Geological Surveys that are working to consolidate and improve access to the country's historical data resources.

"Living, and growing our operations in Africa has not been easy,"says Ria Tinnion, Managing Director of Geosoft Africa, "but it's been very satisfying to contribute to the progress being made in building Africa's mineral exploration capabilities and seeing the increase in external investment."

While there is still disparity from region to region, overall the availability of more public data has spurred activity. "You can see more activity in the regions where both data and software can be applied to promote development,"says Tinnion. "There will be a spin off over the next five years, as more and more data becomes available and encourages companies to explore."

Dramatic growth in activity and investment within Africa has gained industry attention, but Tinnion notes subtle changes in the exploration landscape that are positive indicators of a settling market. "We're seeing fewer new players entering Africa and more signs of active and advanced project development, "says Tinnion. " Explorers who may have just gained their ground a year ago, and started with a skeleton crew and one copy of Geosoft software, are now growing their teams and software investments to advance their projects."

With critical labor and infrastructure issues, explorers have had to be innovative in finding the funds and people required to develop existing projects.  "Entering into venture partnerships, and bringing on consultants with pre-existing experience in the region are a few of the approaches being taken to quicken the pace of development,"says Tinnion.

The application of modern technology to exploration projects is also making a difference.

"With the level of drilling activity and staffing shortage we're seeing in Africa, the ability to gain greater productivity through software is an obvious advantage, and that message certainly resonates,"says Kevin Fischer, Account Executive for Geosoft Africa. "Whether the company is going in with ground geophysics first, or starting their drilling – they want to get the most out of their data and do it as efficiently as possible so they can make decisions quickly."

Geosoft has seen increased demand for its exploration geology software, Geosoft Target and Target for ArcGIS, to support active and growing drilling projects. With established explorers rapidly expanding their portfolio of regional projects, the company is also seeing more interest in its DAP Server-based solution for exploration data management.

"Addressing data access allows you to drive efficiency across your workflow, particularly if you have many projects within different regions of Africa,"says Tinnion. "Having a solution that frees you from having to worry about bandwidth issues or data integrity, means your geologists can progress their projects regardless of where they sit – in the office or in the field."

As an exploration software company, having an office and presence in Africa has been key to understanding and meeting regional exploration needs.

"We're a relatively small team,"says Fischer, "but each of us – whether managing director, account executive or technical analyst - is able to provide both a technical and business perspective.  We're often problem solving with explorers on data integration issues or project data needs, and that's helped us build trusted relationships."

Many of the projects being explored in Africa are pre-existing, and the challenge of data integration can be significant.  "Our experience and capabilities for supporting such a wide variety of data formats is seen as a big advantage,"says Fischer.  "For many explorers, it's often a case of getting hard copy into digital format and working with an old database in MapInfo or other format. The ultimate challenge is to integrate it and bring it into a single environment where you can gather your insight and share it with investors. That's where Geosoft can really help."

 

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