Does Satellite Gold Exploration Work? Project Results

The short answer: what 23 projects show

Yes, as a first step. Across 23 live Farmonaut case studies in 11 named countries, satellite analysis cut each licence down to a short list of targets. Six clients report that they drilled those targets and hit mineralisation or gold-bearing reef. Five more report that drilling is planned or still ahead. The rest delivered ranked targets for first drilling.

A satellite does not see gold. It reads the signs that travel with gold: altered rock, iron-stained caps, clay minerals and faults. The analysis ranks ground by how strongly those signs line up, and drilling and laboratory assays then say what is really there. This page lists every project, what its own page says was found, and how far it has got.

Each row links to the full case study. Where a client is named, the case study carries that client’s consent. Where a case study is anonymised, it stays anonymised here.

All 23 projects in one table

The table runs from the furthest stage to the earliest. “Stage reached” repeats what each page states and nothing more. Footprints and counts are the figures printed on those pages.

Seventeen rows name a country. Four more name only West Africa, and two withhold the country at the client’s request. Sixteen of the 18 rows that state an area are 422 ha or smaller, so most of these clients hold small and mid-size ground.

Where each project stands

Exploration moves in steps: screen, target, drill, assay. The chart sorts the 23 projects by the last step each page describes. Six are at the drill stage, one was walked on foot by the client’s geologist, five have a client report that drilling is planned or still ahead, and eleven delivered ranked targets.

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Stage reached by the 23 projects

Number of case studies, by the last step each page describes

The drilled group is the one most readers ask about. In Niger, a 1,870 ha concession, the ranked targets were drilled and lab-tested, and the client reports mineralisation. In Somalia, a 200 ha concession produced 22 zones, and the company reports drilling, laboratory tests and gold mineralisation. A client in South Africa reports that targets in a 53.2 ha area were drilled and mineralisation was found, with assay still to come. Those are the client’s own statements, and the pages say so.

How to read these results

Three rules keep the numbers honest.

• Targets are not resources. Any tonnes and grade on a Farmonaut case study are exploration targets: ranges for ground where there has been too little work to estimate a Mineral Resource under the JORC Code. They are not JORC, NI 43-101 or SAMREC resources or reserves, and this page does not use them as such.
• Time saved is the client’s estimate. Where a page gives time saved, it is a band the client picked on a feedback form, for example 3 to 6 months in Niger or 1 to 3 months in Somalia and Tanzania.
• The stage tells you how much weight to give a row. A drilled target carries more weight than a ranked list. A ranked list still tells a licence holder where to spend the first field days.

Satellites map the surface and near-surface signatures; drilling and sampling confirm. That is why every page here stops at the stage it has reached.

How much of the licence carried targets

Eight projects print a footprint. The share of the licence that carried targets runs from about 9% in Somalia to 22.7% in one Zambian block. In the Matabeleland South project, 24.2 ha of 148.3 ha carried seven ranked zones, so the first drilling can start with a sixth of the ground instead of all of it.

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Share of the licence that carried targets

% of licence area, as printed on each case study (Somalia, Tanzania and Ethiopia are stated as about)

West Africa projects

Eight projects sit here: Niger, Ghana, Nigeria, Mauritania and four that name only the region. Gold is the main target, and one study adds lithium.

• Niger, 1,870 ha: a prospectivity ranking of the whole concession near Maradi. The company reports that it drilled and assayed the targets and found mineralisation, and it reports 3 to 6 months saved.
• West Africa, 68-point field audit: 14 ranked zones went into a four-day walk by the client’s geologist. The team logged 68 GPS localities of gold mineralisation, found quartz, veining or worked ground at all eight zones it scored, and read the concession as a primary hard-rock system. Two zones are set as the first drill targets.
• Ghana, 422 ha: nine anomaly zones over 68.6 ha, six of them on ground that can be developed, with a drill order.
• Nigeria, 300 ha: gold and lithium screened in one pass. The client reports that locations were narrowed and 6 months or more saved, and drilling is planned.
• Mauritania, 95 km2: 12 high-priority gold anomalies ranked, delivered as a GeoJSON file for the client’s GIS.
• A district screen: 155 ranked zones across a large greenstone-belt licence, produced in days.
• A greenstone corridor: 31 ranked zones along one structural corridor.
• A compact block: 13 zones in a tight cluster, ranked before any drilling.

East Africa projects

Three projects sit in the Horn and the east of the continent.

• Somalia, 200 ha: 22 zones covering 17.45 ha. Ileys General Trading drilled, ran laboratory tests and reports gold mineralisation, and reports 1 to 3 months saved.
• Tanzania, 28.1 ha: three zones covering about 10% of the land, with a first plan of six holes and about 560 m. Drilling is planned within 1 to 3 months. Licence rules differ by country; the Tanzania cadastre guide covers the local steps.
• Ethiopia, 99.66 ha: two zones covering about 17 ha, with a phase-1 plan of 16 core holes.

Southern Africa projects

Ten projects sit in Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana, and Zimbabwe alone has six. Small licences dominate. They are the ground where one wrongly placed hole costs the most.

• Zimbabwe, about 300 ha: ranked targets were drilled and mineralisation was encountered, noted as a field observation with assay as the next step. The client reports 6 months or more saved.
• South Africa, 53.2 ha: NTS Group acted for its own client. It reports that the targets were drilled and mineralisation was found, and it would recommend the service to its clients.
• Zimbabwe, about 200 ha: the client reports that locations were narrowed and 6 months or more saved. The drill programme is still about 6 months or more away.
• Zimbabwe, under 100 ha: the same client-reported saving, with drilling planned and not yet started.
• Zimbabwe, under 30 ha: gold, silver and uranium assessed in one pass on a very small licence, with drilling still ahead.
• Zimbabwe, 148.3 ha: seven ranked zones across three blocks in Matabeleland South, at depths of 47 to 90 m.
• Zimbabwe, 327 ha: ten zones over 45.8 ha, ordered into four drilling tiers.
• Zambia, 283.2 ha: ten zones over 64.2 ha, ranked as a drill queue.
• Zambia, 49.66 ha: three zones over 7.45 ha, with a first-pass plan of three holes and 329 m. The Zambia cadastre guide explains how licences work there.
• Botswana, 182 ha: a kimberlite target map for diamond, with ranked priority features.

Copper-cobalt and reef results, country withheld

Two clients asked us to keep the country private, and the pages do.

• Copper-cobalt, under 100 ha: the client reports that the ranked targets were drilled and mineralisation was encountered at them, and that up to 30 days of exploration time was saved.
• Gold reef, area withheld: the client drilled the flagged targets, and the core intersected gold-bearing reef structures. The page describes drilling confirming the reef, and says grade, width and continuity still need systematic drilling.

What the drilled projects have in common

The drilled pages describe the same habit. The Niger client treated the report as a shortlist and tested it. The Zimbabwe client took the highest-ranked targets to the rig. The copper-cobalt client drilled the targets ranked highest. None of them drilled the whole licence. Each put the first holes on the ranked list and kept the rest of the ground for later.

The same pages also show why a first drill plan is written with a direction and an angle. A hole drilled across a vein tests it better than one drilled along it. In Somalia, each of the 10 leading zones carries a suggested direction, angle and hole depth for that reason.

Terms used in these case studies

• Anomaly zone or target zone: a patch of ground where several satellite signs line up, drawn as a polygon with a rank.
• Prospectivity ranking: a score for how favourable each pixel is for the target mineral. It is a ranking, not an assay.
• Gossan: rust-coloured oxide material that can cap an ore body after sulphide minerals weather near the surface.
• Exploration target: a range of tonnes and grade for ground that has not been explored enough to estimate a resource.
• Mineralisation: rock that carries the target metal at any level. It is not a grade, and it is not an economic deposit.
• Assay: a laboratory measurement of metal content, and the only figure a buyer or funder should rely on for grade.

Checks to run before you rely on a result

• Which stage has the project reached: ranked, planned, drilled or assayed?
• Was the result observed in the field or measured in a laboratory?
• Who states it, the provider or the licence holder?
• Does the claim use the words resource or reserve? If so, a qualified person must have signed it under a recognised code.

These are the same questions this page tries to answer for each row. A drilled and assayed target carries a different risk profile from a map alone, and a good case study says which one it is.

What this means for your own licence

If you hold a licence of a few hundred hectares or less, the pattern in these projects is the same: screen the whole block first, drill the best targets, then decide on the rest. The satellite stage takes 5 to 20 business days, depending on the size of the area and the mineral. Public satellites such as Sentinel-2 record 13 spectral bands at up to 10 m, with a 5-day revisit. Geological surveys use the same family of data: the US Geological Survey ranked lithium playas partly with data products from the ASTER sensor.

To see what a finished deliverable looks like, read the sample exploration report. For the method itself, see how satellite mineral exploration works, and the satellite mineral detection hub. Licence rules by country are in the cadastre portal guide. To run a block of your own, draw it on Farmonaut Mining or request a quote.

Frequently asked questions

Can a satellite find gold?

Not gold itself. It finds the alteration minerals, iron-oxide caps and structures that go with gold systems, then ranks ground by how strongly they line up. Drilling and laboratory assays confirm what is there, as the Niger and Somalia projects show.

How many of these projects have been drilled?

Six report drilling the ranked targets: Niger, Somalia, South Africa, one Zimbabwe project, the copper-cobalt project and the reef project. Five report that drilling is planned or still ahead. One was field-checked on foot at 68 localities, and eleven delivered ranked targets.

How small can a licence be?

These projects run from a block under 30 ha to a 95 km2 area in Mauritania. One of the drilled projects is a 53.2 ha block in South Africa. Farmonaut recommends a minimum area of 10 acres.

Are the tonnes and grades on the case studies a resource?

No. They are exploration targets, quoted as ranges, and they are not JORC, NI 43-101 or SAMREC resources. Only drilling and a qualified person can move a target towards a resource.

What do I send to start a project?

Send the licence boundary as coordinates, a KML or KMZ file or a polygon, the country, and the minerals you want assessed. Farmonaut covers gold, copper, lithium, coal, gemstones and more. Request a quote from the quote form.