Artificial intelligence is set to become the new standard in mineral exploration, by helping geologists extract value from decades of overlooked data and make better sense of complex geological evidence.

Speaking at a Seequent media event on June 25, Botswana Minerals Managing Director, James Campbell said AI could help explorers reduce avoidable uncertainty and improve decision-making in an industry that desperately needs to accelerate critical mineral discoveries.

“The world needs copper, the world needs critical minerals, but the world doesn't really want to fund the exploration which is going to help us produce those minerals,” Campbell said.

These nocomments come as demand for critical minerals continues to rise globally, placing mounting pressure on explorers to identify resources faster than before.

Yet the market remains risk-averse when it comes to funding early-stage exploration, Campbell noted.

He said future mineral discoveries would increasingly come from countries with high political risk, making it essential for explorers to extract maximum value from every dollar spent and derisk projects to attract investor confidence.

“Essentially, it's about not just simply deeper drilling, but about better integration before drilling,” Campbell explained.

The Botswana Minerals MD said AI could interrogate large, heterogeneous databases and identify patterns that would otherwise require a large team of geologists to find over a considerable period. He emphasised that the technology could help provide an auditable analysis of geological evidence and improve both technical quality and corporate optionality in decision-making.

Campbell also highlighted the untapped potential of legacy data, particularly in Africa.

“There is huge opportunity to go in to look at some of those very, very old archives of data and realise value from it,” he said, adding that AI could serve as a tool to unlock that value.

Despite his enthusiasm, Campbell cautioned that AI is not a magic tool.

“AI is here not to replace the geologist…but this actually helps us do our work much quicker, much more efficiently, but with our eyes wide open in terms of the risk and uncertainty,” he said, stressing that human judgment remains essential for providing context, scepticism and accountability. “You’ve got to use it responsibly,” he added.

Looking ahead, Campbell said he expects AI-assisted prospectivity modelling to become the industry norm, alongside more real-time integration of drilling and downhole sensing.

“The future belongs to those explorers who can harness geological discipline, computational capability and, vitally, commercial constraint because, after all, juniors are the engine room of future mineral discovery and funding a junior is hard work,” Campbell said.

Seequent, a subsidiary of Bentley, hosted the June 25 event featuring industry speakers and customer case studies focused on improving subsurface understanding to support exploration and project outcomes.