SQM Discovers New Exploration Targets in Partnership with Mineral Forecast

The Chilean mining company SQM (NYSE:SQM / BOLSA DE SANTIAGO:SQM-B), global leader in the production of lithium, potassium, and iodine, has successfully identified new exploration targets through a collaboration with Mineral Forecast. This partnership leverages artificial intelligence to enhance the accuracy of discovering potential mineral deposits.

SQM is a global mining company based in northern Chile, operating in strategic industries essential for sustainable development, such as health, food, technology, and the clean energies that power the world. With five business lines, SQM holds a world-leading position in each. Guided by its corporate values of Excellence, Safety, Integrity, and Sustainability, the company has a 52-year history of commitment to innovation and technological development. This focus allows SQM to adapt its processes to global market conditions, ensuring operational continuity and creating value for its customers, shareholders, and the surrounding environment. In 2023, the company reported sales of $7.46 billion USD. (sqm.com)

The joint effort focused on the Taltal District, an 8,000-hectare area located southeast of Antofagasta. Through the application of Mineral Forecast’s AI-powered targeting and geological data analysis, SQM was able to confirm three previously identified targets and discover an additional six targets with a high probability of mineralization.

This strategic alliance highlights a growing trend in the mining industry of integrating advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve exploration efficiency and success rates. By utilizing Mineral Forecast’s Geo AI Advisor, SQM aims to optimize its exploration processes and uncover new viable mining locations.

“It’s very simple: Mineral Forecast’s Geo AI Advisor works. And the entire mining team benefits.”

– Ricardo Gonzalez, former Head of Exploration at SQM

With Mineral Forecast, SQM achieves:

• Target Validation: Confirmation of three targets previously identified by the exploration team.
• New Target Identification: Detection of six additional targets with high potential for copper mineralization.
• Concrete Results: Confirmation of the Pampa Chango and Nitona targets as an 8 x 4 km high-interest zone.
• Process Optimization: Use of artificial intelligence to achieve greater accuracy in discovering potential sectors for drilling.

The collaboration also involved the use of geological modeling and visualization software from Seequent, to better present and integrate the AI-driven findings with traditional geological models.

Featured in Nueva Minería (spanish) and Minería Chilena (spanish). For further details on this project, please see this link.