Tempest Minerals End-to-End Exploration Logging App

Sustainability Through Efficient Operations

With Grid, Tempest Minerals has created, along with their services partners Galt Mining Solutions, a first end-to-end automated exploration logging platform that integrates with their database, and stitches mapping and drilling data together, to create a consolidated database of all their exploration operations.

Grid supercharges Tempest Minerals’ mapping and exploration efforts, saving over 60% of their geologists’ time.‍

Tempest Minerals At A Glance

• 20 Grid Users
• 8 projects in Western Australia
• Recent Copper strike in Meleya Project, W. Australia
• Latest funding: $8.44MM AUD
• ~10K records uploaded to Grid

Timeline

How did Grid & Tempest Mineral's collaboration come about?

Grid and Tempest Minerals have been collaborating since July 2021, a relationship that’s been founded on a mutual understanding that Digitization and mobile-first data management is the need of the hour in exploration for faster discovery and improved efficiencies.

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Snapshot

Who's using Grid @ Tempest Minerals?

How Does Grid Work With Tempest Minerals?

A single process view of how Grid integrates with Tempest Mineral’s workflow:

Grid’s mobile app is used to collect data from the field and from rig sites. The data is then sent via APIs to Tempest Minerals’ SQL Database, and from there, to a geological modelling software, which powers their entire exploration and drilling management.

Before Grid

Tempest Minerals used to rely on a number of independent software solutions that had to be patched together to achieve a somewhat workable solution. Grid combines and makes available all those separate functionalities in a single powerful and flexible tool:

MS Excel / Google Sheets

Usage: Since the field data was not standardized, it first needed to be imported into a spreadsheet program and cleaned up.
Issues: Time-consuming, prone to input errors, no way to enforce standardization of terms or categories of data.

Since MS Excel is not a collaborative tool, version control and synchronization of data was also a concern.

Open Data Kit (ODK)

Usage: ODK is an open-source software for collecting, managing, and using data.
Issues: Time-consuming, prone to input errors, no way to enforce standardizing of data.
ODK is open source, so it cost nothing to implement in terms of money, but there was a huge drain on geologists’ time due to the frequent data mismatch issues.

Zapier

Usage: Since ODK did not have inbuilt options to connect with other software, Zapier was used to do this.
Issues: High cost, reduced reliability, time-consuming to transfer millions of records
Zapier is great for small and specific use cases, but in Tempest Minerals’ situation, where huge volumes of data were required
to be passed between so􀃿twares, Zapier became slow and expensive to use.

Operations @ Tempest Minerals Powered By Grid

Tempest Minerals' operations are contracted to their partner company, Galt Mining Solutions, whose geologists and field staff perform most of the operations.

Building Geological Libraries

Technical Libraries based on various international standards are maintained and referenced from Grid for all programs. This ensures that any fields or values that Tempest Minerals or Galt Mining Solutions staff use, are standard across the company, completely eliminating the need to sanitize the data that’s uploaded into the Grid application.

Key Benefits

The ability to create, upload and edit a master sheet of reference terms and terminology which can be imported into any end user application created for Tempest Minerals, thus saving time and effort.

Surveying & Mapping

Field geologists use the Grid mobile application to collect and manage data on rocks, vegetation, outcrops, archaeology etc. as a
part of field work.

Key Benefits

The Grid mobile application works completely offline, on any mobile device, enabling geologists to quickly add data en masse from the field, without expensive hardware, thus saving costs.

Drilling Data Collection & Management

Resource Geologists use Grid’s companion mobile app in offline mode to enter all their drilling data including Lithologies, samples, orientations, structures and mineralization.

Key Benefits

Data flows seamlessly across applications used by the entire company, thus speeding up decision makin􀄀 processes, and giving an end-to-end visibility into the company’s operations and making the entire team more agile and proactive.

Geological Data Visualization & Productivity Tracking

The collected in􀃿ormation is visualized into charts and dashboard widgets for both geological reporting (like Strip log visualizations) and productivity and time tracking for field teams.

Key Benefits

Customizable dashboards and visualizations improve productivity and speed up responsiveness o􀃿 the company to a dynamic and changing environment, reducing reaction time and increasing monitoring capacity.

Vehicle Inspections

Galt Mining Solutions performs regular vehicle inspections. These inspections consist of going down specific checklists and ensuring that each step is correctly performed and the data on the vehicle being inspected is accurately and quickly captured, a task that Grid's mobile app is perfectly adept at completing.

Key Benefits

Vehicle Inspections are fast, thorough and the results are available for immediate review.

How Tempest Minerals Uses Grid

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Mapping: Sampling (Soil, Rock, etc)

Sampling is performed to ascertain the likely composition of mineral deposits underground, based on evidence on and beneath the surface of the Earth. Here’s how Grid helps Tempest Minerals perform their various sampling processes:

• Step 01: When Tempest Minerals’ geologists conduct a sampling exercise, data on each sample from the area being surveyed is entered into Grid using the companion mobile app.
• Step 02: The data entry process takes place at the very moment the sample is collected. Also, the terms and values used to describe each sample are pre-defined in Tempest Minerals’ geological libraries, so geologists can only use standardized language, thus making sure the data is uniform and there is no data sanitization needed.
• Step 03: The app works offline, so all sample data is entered en masse and, when network coverage is available, the data is automatically uploaded.
• Step 04: Grid’s dashboards display the data as it is uploaded, in real time, using a variety of visualizations to show the composition of the minerals in the area being surveyed. This enables Resource Geologists and other Tempest Minerals staff to locate where mineral deposits might be present.

Total Samples Analyzed In Grid: 1800+
Metrics Tracked: Total samples collected, Daily logging

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Drilling: Sampling & Assays

The Sampling & Assays process at Tempest Minerals involves drilling into the earth and extracting core samples that are then analyzed for mineral content. Grid speeds up this process immensely:

• Step 01: Core samples are drilled and examined by experienced Field Geologists. The data from the samples are entered into Grid’s companion mobile application in the order that the samples are examined.
• Step 02: Thanks to a predetermined data structure that Resource Geologists and other senior staff at Tempest Minerals have built into Grid, the data accurately reflects the various depths at which minerals are found, as well as the composition of the intervening materials. This not only helps in planning where to drill to extract minerals, but also helps predict the likely resistance or obstacles that need to be overcome.
• Step 03: Grid’s dashboard displays this data in a number of useful ways using visualizations like Strip Logs, which indicate the composition of  each core sample and its structure and makeup.
• Step 04: Planning and provisioning for mineral extraction becomes incredibly easy thanks to the wealth of data available that’s easily understood, on a real-time basis.

Total number of core samples analyzed in grid: 3,000+
Metrics Tracked: Daily drilling progress, Daily logging, Daily core cutting, # Core Samples collected

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