The data challenges holding mining resource development teams back and how to fix them fast

Exploration teams working to define a mineral resource or extend the life of a mine are under intense pressure to reduce geological uncertainty quickly. But for small teams operating at the sharp end of resource drilling or brownfields exploration, the challenge isn’t just the geology – it’s the compounding impact of all the other jobs and tasks involved with running a project around it.

For geologists in the advanced exploration to early production stages of a project, you’re likely responsible for far more than collecting and interpreting core samples.

Whether you’re aiming to secure the next round of funding, advance to a feasibility study, or position your project for sale, one thing is clear: your data has to be right, and it has to be ready.

But lean teams with limited time and resources, can face common pain points that slow everything down. Here’s where most projects get stuck and what to do about it.

Scattered data can slow progress

In advanced stages of exploration or resource development, it’s common for drillhole and sampling data, to be fragmented across disconnected spreadsheets, legacy systems or paper records.

This makes even the simplest of questions hard to answer. Have all the drill logs been completed? Have lab results been dispatched? Is the data up-to-date and validated?

Without a central source of truth, answering these questions often means chasing files, cross-checking versions and second-guessing data integrity.

The fix: When geological information is captured and stored in one place, and made available in a usable form, geologists can spend less time on fixing data and more time on interpretation. That means faster decisions in the field and clearer communication back to investors and the market.

Poor data quality = risky decisions

The quality of your decisions come from the accuracy of your geological data. And when you need to make quick and confident decisions in the field such as whether to extend or re-drill holes, the wrong decision can be costly.

If you’re still rely on paper-based logging or disconnected systems, manual edits, reformatting, and repeated checks can become part of your drill program routine, opening the door to errors, inconsistencies and drill program delays.

Without validation at the point of capture, mistakes can go unnoticed for days or even weeks, compromising the integrity of your dataset. And as projects scale, these issues multiply.

The fix: You need to be confident your decisions are made using complete, clean and correct data. Having your geological data managed in a fit-for-purpose solution means your team can spend less time correcting errors and more time reporting findings and interpretations to market.

Long delays between results and usable data

Timeliness is everything when you’re drilling. But when data is delayed, geologists can miss valuable opportunities and momentum from drill program to strategic decision is lost.

Even once assays are back from the lab, small teams can spend days wrangling spreadsheets, reformatting data or chasing down errors just to get to a point where it can be used confidently for modelling or reporting.

Without a reliable way of managing your data, you can find yourself stuck in a cycle of manual edits and repeated checks, especially when your workflow spans multiple people or systems. And with a lean team juggling multiple roles, every hour spent fixing data is an hour taken from planning, interpreting or executing the next phase of your program.

The fix: You need a fast, reliable way to get from data to decision, with in-built validation and simple workflows to ensure that your geological data is clean and consistent at the point of capture.

The solution for you: GIM Essentials

At acQuire, we’ve spent more than 25 years helping the world’s leading miners tackle complex geoscientific information management (GIM) challenges using our enterprise solution, GIM Suite.

Now, we’re making that industry-leading data management accessible to more companies in advanced exploration and resource development, with the launch of GIM Essentials – a reliable and easy-to-use geological data management software, bringing data quality, validation and reliability to your next drill program.

• No infrastructure? No problem. GIM Essentials is cloud-ready and works out of the box so there’s no need for IT teams or complex setup.
• Need it fast? You can get it up and running quickly to use for your next drilling program.
• Want to keep things simple? It’s designed for small teams, with intuitive workflows and built-in validation to help you get it right the first time.

Explore GIM Essentials today.