Leapfrog Geology Software: Features, Licences, Alternatives

Leapfrog geology software is the family of 3D modelling products from Seequent, and Leapfrog Geo is the one most mining geologists mean when they say “Leapfrog”. It builds geological, numeric and block models directly from drill hole and mapping data using implicit modelling, so a model can be rebuilt in minutes when new assays arrive rather than redrawn section by section.

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That speed is why it spread so fast through exploration and resource teams. It is also why people ask whether it is worth the licence for a small project, and what the alternatives are. We cover what the software does, how a model is built, what Seequent says about licences, where it fits in an exploration programme, and where another tool may suit you better. We have no commercial relationship with Seequent and have not benchmarked the product; everything here comes from Seequent’s own pages or published sources. Our comparison of eight 3D geological modelling tools sets Leapfrog beside its rivals.

“ARANZ Geo reported thousands of Leapfrog users in over 50 countries by October 2014.”

What Leapfrog geology software does

Seequent’s Leapfrog Geo product page describes fast, accurate implicit modelling software for geological interpretation, aimed mainly at mining projects. In practical terms the software does five jobs: it stores and displays geoscience data, builds geological surfaces and volumes, builds numeric models such as grade shells, creates block models, and shares the results with the rest of the team.

• ✔ Data integration: drill hole data, structural measurements, points, polylines and meshes in one 3D scene.
• ✔ Geological models: lithology, faults, veins, intrusions and stratigraphy, built as dynamically updatable surfaces.
• Numeric models: interpolated grade or property shells, for example copper above a cut-off.
• Block models: gridded volumes that carry rock codes and values into estimation.
• Collaboration: built-in tools plus cloud publishing through Seequent Central.

The Leapfrog product family

According to Seequent’s Leapfrog software overview, the range includes Leapfrog Geo for geoscience data and 3D modelling, Leapfrog Works for civil and environmental projects, Leapfrog Energy for energy development and operations, and Leapfrog Edge for resource estimation inside the 3D model. The Leapfrog Geo page also lists Hydrogeology and Geophysics extensions: the first connects to MODFLOW and FEFLOW groundwater models, the second displays seismic and GPR data.

For a mining company, the usual combination is Leapfrog Geo plus Edge. Geo produces the geology; Edge interrogates block models and runs the estimation that turns a geological model into a resource model. Leapfrog mining software work at operating mines tends to focus on updating those models as grade control and new drilling arrive.

How implicit modelling works in Leapfrog

The idea behind Leapfrog geological modelling is to let an interpolant build the surfaces rather than the geologist drawing them. Seequent’s guide to implicit modelling contrasts the two approaches: explicit modelling is the traditional manual method of wireframing and digitising, while implicit modelling forms surfaces such as grade, faults and alteration directly from the data.

Radial basis functions and FastRBF

Leapfrog’s interpolation is based on radial basis functions (RBFs). Seequent says its FastRBF™ algorithm overcomes the usual limits of RBFs and can handle datasets of well over 1,000,000 points quickly on ordinary computing hardware, including extrapolation across large gaps in the data. In practice that means a model with tens of thousands of drill hole intervals, mapping points and structural readings can be rebuilt without a supercomputer.

Why dynamic updating matters

Because the surfaces are computed from the data, a Leapfrog geological model updates when the data changes. Add ten new holes and the lithology surfaces, fault blocks and grade shells rebuild. Seequent argues this frees geologists to spend time on interpretation and on testing several hypotheses. The flip side is discipline: if an interpretation depends on a manual edit, that edit has to be captured as a control point or polyline, or it will vanish on the next rebuild.

Building a Leapfrog geological model, step by step

Every project differs, but the workflow follows a recognisable order. Seequent’s product page lists the building blocks (data integration, geological, numeric and block modelling, visualisation and publishing); the order below is how they typically connect.

1. Import drill holes. Collars, downhole surveys, lithology and assay intervals, usually as CSV tables or from a database. Fix overlapping intervals and missing surveys first.
2. Add topography and maps. A surface elevation model, geological map linework, structural readings and any geophysical or satellite layers.
3. Model the fault network. Faults split the volume into blocks, and each block is modelled separately.
4. Build the geological model. Lithology or stratigraphic surfaces inside each fault block, guided by contacts, trends and control points.
5. Build numeric models. Grade or property shells inside the host units.
6. Create a block model and estimate. With the Edge extension, estimation and block interrogation happen inside the same project.
7. Review and publish. Share through Seequent Central or export scenes for the free viewer.

How many intervals will you be modelling?

The size of a project comes mostly from the drill hole tables. A modest programme of 100 holes averaging 250 m, sampled every metre, already produces 25,000 assay intervals, and each interval can carry dozens of element values. Compositing to a fixed length before estimation cuts that number and evens out sample support. Use the estimator below to size your own tables before you import them.

The chart shows the same 25,000 m of drilling at four interval lengths. Halving the sample length doubles the rows; compositing to 4 m brings them down to a quarter of the 1 m count.

Leapfrog licensing, cost and the free viewer

Searches for what Leapfrog geology software costs are common, but Seequent does not publish a price on its Leapfrog Geo page. What it does publish is the structure: 12-month named licences can be bought online and give a single dedicated user unlimited use of the software, while shared and enterprise licences go through the sales team. Extensions such as Edge are priced separately. Your quote will depend on seat type, modules, term and region.

• Named licence: one user, 12 months, available to buy online according to Seequent.
• Shared or enterprise licences: for teams and larger organisations, by quote.
• Extensions: Edge, Hydrogeology and Geophysics are listed as extensions to Leapfrog Geo.
• ✔ Leapfrog Viewer: the free Leapfrog Viewer opens scenes exported from Leapfrog Geo, Works and Energy, and lets anyone spin, slice and measure the model. It needs a Seequent ID.

The viewer matters more than it sounds. Investors, regulators, landholders and drilling contractors rarely need a modelling licence; they need to see the model. Sending a viewer scene instead of screenshots lets them slice through the geology themselves, which tends to build more confidence than a static figure.

Questions to ask before you buy

Before signing for Leapfrog geology software, or any rival, get written answers to a short list. It keeps the comparison honest and avoids surprises at renewal.

1. Which product and extensions do we actually need? Geo alone, Geo plus Edge, or Works for a civil project?
2. Named or shared seats? A named licence suits one full-time modeller; a team that models part-time may be better served by shared seats.
3. What does renewal cost? Ask for the year-two price and maintenance terms, not just the first invoice.
4. What training is included? Online, classroom or none, and whether it covers your deposit style.
5. How do we share models? Central, viewer scenes, or exports in open formats for consultants on other packages.
6. What happens if we stop paying? Confirm how you would open archived projects later, for example through the free viewer or exported files.

Put the same six questions to Micromine, Dassault Systèmes or any other vendor on your list. The answers usually decide the purchase faster than a feature checklist, because Leapfrog geology software and its rivals overlap heavily on core modelling.

Ownership and support

Seequent developed Leapfrog as ARANZ Geo in Christchurch, New Zealand. Bentley Systems agreed to acquire Seequent for about $1.05 billion in March 2021, naming Leapfrog, Geosoft and GeoStudio among its products. For users that mainly means Leapfrog now sits inside a larger infrastructure-software group, which can affect bundles and enterprise agreements over time.

Leapfrog geology software across deposit styles

The same software gets used very differently depending on the orebody. The tools are the same; what changes is which surfaces carry the model and where the interpolant needs the most help. A few patterns come up repeatedly.

Narrow-vein gold

Narrow veins test Leapfrog geology software harder than most deposits. Veins are thin, steep and often discontinuous. The challenge is keeping a vein surface continuous where the geology supports it and letting it pinch out where it does not. Modellers usually select vein intercepts hole by hole, add structural readings from oriented core, and use polylines to stop the surface running beyond the last intercept. Grade is often modelled inside the vein as a numeric model, then carried into a block model with a small block size across the vein.

Porphyry copper and gold

Porphyry systems suit Leapfrog geology software well. They are large, with alteration and grade that change gradually outward from intrusive centres. Here the strength of implicit modelling is building nested shells: intrusive phases, potassic and phyllic alteration, and grade envelopes at several cut-offs. The fault network matters because late faults commonly offset the whole system. Numeric models of copper, gold and molybdenum can be compared shell by shell to test where the core of the system sits.

Stratiform and sedimentary deposits

Where mineralisation follows a bed or a sequence, stratigraphic modelling does most of the work. Contacts are picked in each hole and the software builds a layer cake, which faults then cut into blocks. The risk is over-smoothing: an interpolated surface can iron out real thickening and thinning, so geologists check isopach-style sections through the drilling.

Water, ground conditions and geophysics

Leapfrog geology software is not only for ore. The Hydrogeology extension links a Leapfrog geological model to MODFLOW and FEFLOW groundwater models, and the Geophysics extension brings seismic and GPR data into the same scene, according to Seequent’s product page. On a mine, the same geological model can feed resource, water and geotechnical work if it is built with those uses in mind.

Leapfrog mining software alternatives

Leapfrog geology software is not the only way to build an implicit model. Several commercial suites and two credible open-source libraries do overlapping jobs. The right choice depends on what else you need from the same package.

Micromine lists Origin as its product for exploration, geological modelling and resource estimation. GEOVIA Surpac combines geological modelling with mine planning. On the open-source side, GemPy is described in a peer-reviewed paper in Geoscientific Model Development, and LoopStructural comes from the Loop platform initiated by Geoscience Australia and OneGeology.

Moving models between packages

Few teams live in one package forever. Consultants use one tool, the mine planners another (see our mine planning software comparison), and the regulator wants something else again. The Open Mining Format, developed by the Global Mining Guidelines Group, is an open exchange format for points, lines, surfaces, volumes and block models. Seequent says in its own article on the format that it supported the format’s development as a collaborator member; check your version’s import and export options for OMF files. Agree exchange formats at the start of a job, not at the handover.

Where Leapfrog 3D geological modelling software fits in exploration

Leapfrog 3D geological modelling software earns its keep once there is data to interpolate: drill holes, detailed mapping, dense geochemistry or geophysical inversions. Before that, a project is mostly a map (see our QGIS guide for exploration geologists). The work at that stage is deciding where to look, and it happens in GIS, in the field and from orbit. Our mineral exploration guide sets out the full sequence from desktop study to drilling.

Geophysics often supplies the first 3D information. Magnetic and gravity inversions, or IP chargeability volumes, can be loaded as meshes or grids and used to guide the first surfaces. Our guide to geophysics for mineral exploration explains which survey maps which physical property.

How our satellite targets feed the first model

Our satellite-based mineral detection analyses multispectral and hyperspectral imagery to flag likely mineralised target zones, alteration halos, faults and fractures across a licence, with no ground disturbance. You send coordinates, a KML/KMZ file or a polygon, plus country and target mineral, and we deliver in 5–20 business days.

• 📊 Premium report: high-potential zones, prospectivity heatmaps, estimated location and depth ranges, indicative quantity and geological interpretation (faults, alteration, host rock), as a PDF plus georeferenced GIS files.
• 📊 Premium+ report: TargetMax™ Drilling Intelligence with drilling-angle recommendations and interactive 3D subsurface models of vein structures and mineral distribution.
• Economics: timelines from months to days and up to 80–85% lower early-exploration cost.
• ⚠ Limits: these are exploration targets, not a resource. They guide mapping, sampling and the first drill holes, which then give the Leapfrog geology software something to model.

Our deliverables are georeferenced GIS files; if you plan to load them into a modelling package, check which formats it imports. See a sample of satellite-driven 3D mineral prospectivity mapping, or start on mining.farmonaut.com: Map Your Mining Site.

Getting good results from Leapfrog software geology projects

Habits matter more than features. These are the practices experienced modellers tend to share, whichever version of Leapfrog geology software they run, and they carry over to any other package.

• Keep source tables outside the project. Store collars, surveys, logs and assays in a database or plain files, so the project can always be rebuilt.
• Record every interpretive choice. Control polylines, trends and contact selections are the interpretation. Name them and note why they exist.
• Build alternatives on purpose. Keep at least two fault or contact interpretations alive until drilling rules one out.
• Check sections every time. Slice along each drill fence after every rebuild; an automatic update can move a surface you had signed off.
• Plan the handover. Decide early whether the next user needs the project, an OMF export or a viewer scene.

Frequently asked questions

Reviewed September 2026 against Seequent’s Leapfrog Geo, Leapfrog software family and Leapfrog Viewer pages, Seequent’s implicit-modelling guide and history, the ARANZ Geo ten-year release (October 2014), the Seequent and Bentley acquisition release, the Global Mining Guidelines Group’s Open Mining Format page, Micromine’s and Dassault Systèmes’ product pages, the GemPy 1.0 paper and the LoopStructural repository.

Leapfrog, Leapfrog Geo, Leapfrog Edge and FastRBF are trademarks of Seequent. We have no commercial relationship with Seequent or the other vendors named and have not benchmarked their software. Features and licence terms change; confirm with the vendor. Satellite targets are exploration targets, not mineral resources.