CSIRO aids Mid West mineral exploration project in Yallalong

A mineral exploration project located 220km north-east of Geraldton has begun with support from the CSIRO.

Exploration for signs of gold and other minerals at the Yallalong Ni-Cu-PMG project, owned by Octava Minerals, has started, the company announced in a statement made on May 8.

Octava will receive support from CSIRO’s Kick-Start initiative, which sees Australian start-ups and small businesses receive funding, expertise and technological support.

CSIRO will provide statistical and machine learning models to help with surveying the area and analysing samples to help find targets of interest in Yallalong.

Octava’s managing director Bevan Wakelam said CSIRO’s support would help make make the exploration process more efficient and less impactful on the local environment.

“It is great to be collaborating with Australia’s premier science agency, CSIRO, to use technology to improve our exploration targeting for critical metals at Yallalong,” Mr Wakelam said

“By applying machine-learning to landscape domaining, sampling design, and soil sample data interpretation, we can reduce our search space and decrease our on the ground impact.”

Octava has said it believes the site is prospective for gold, but the area has been under explored in the past.