Remote Sensing and Automated Data Processing in Gold Mining: Midas Gold Corp, NV Gold Corp and White Gold Corp

Reviewed August 2026 against USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries, Perpetua Resources’ SEC/SEDAR+ filings, and Gemfields Group’s auction disclosures.

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Midas Gold Corp hasn’t filed anything under that name since February 2021 — it is now Perpetua Resources Corp. (Nasdaq/TSX: PPTA), and its Stibnite Gold Project in Idaho is under construction toward a targeted 2029 start of gold and antimony production. “Remote sensing and automated data processing” is the phrase mining companies use in technical reports for satellite- and AI-driven exploration targeting, and under both Canadian and U.S. disclosure rules, every section of that report — including the remote-sensing work — has to carry the name of a specific Qualified Person. This article shows exactly where to find that name, compares Perpetua/Midas against two other North American gold explorers running satellite-assisted programs in the same 2026 field season (NV Gold Corp and White Gold Corp), and — because the same remote-sensing methods now drive colored-gemstone exploration too — closes with the world’s top ruby mines and how their output is actually tracked.

Article Guide

Midas Gold Corp Is Now Perpetua Resources — Where Stibnite Stands

The rename took effect February 15, 2021: Midas Gold Corp became Perpetua Resources Corp., dropping its old TSX ticker MAX and OTCQX ticker MDRPF for a Nasdaq listing under PPTA starting February 18, 2021, with the TSX listing following under the same symbol around the same date, according to the company’s own name-change announcement. The flagship asset didn’t move: it’s still the Stibnite Gold Project in Idaho’s Stibnite-Yellow Pine district, a site mined intermittently since the 1930s and left with unreclaimed pits and tailings from earlier operators.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6AHSBnl-J50

Perpetua received its final federal permitting approval in September 2025 and, per Forbes’ reporting on the March 31, 2026 Export-Import Bank decision, the deposit carries reserves of 4.8 million ounces of gold, 6.4 million ounces of silver and 149 million pounds of antimony. EXIM’s board approved a $2.7 billion loan on that date, and the company has said it expects a final investment decision later in 2026. Separately, a Technical Report Summary dated December 31, 2025 projects 463,000 ounces of gold per year for the project’s first four years of production, according to InvestingNews’ coverage of Perpetua’s August 6, 2026 drill-results release, which also lists 3.1 million ounces of gold and 99.8 million pounds of antimony in resources sitting outside the current reserve. Perpetua has said construction is generating roughly $45 million in direct work for Idaho businesses and communities, per its construction-progress statement.

On the exploration side, that same August 6, 2026 release disclosed a minimum 10,000-metre core drilling program for 2026 using four rigs, with roughly 5,800 metres — 58% — completed and awaiting assay by the release date. Recent intercepts included 21.3 metres at 3.2 g/t gold and 0.9% tungsten, and 6.4 metres at 16.2 g/t gold and 1.7% antimony at the Yellow Pine zone, plus 22.9 metres at 3.2% antimony and 1.2% tungsten at Hangar Flats — the kind of grade that shows up after a satellite- and AI-narrowed target list, not a blind grid.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=slxXnObn3zA

Source: company press releases — Perpetua Resources and NV Gold Corp, both Aug. 6, 2026; White Gold Corp 2026 exploration-program update. *White Gold’s bar uses the midpoint of its 15,000–20,000 m guidance range.

What “Remote Sensing and Automated Data Processing” Means — and Who Signs It

In a mining technical report, “remote sensing” covers satellite and airborne imagery — multispectral, hyperspectral, radar, LiDAR, magnetics — used to map alteration zones, structures and mineral spectral signatures before anyone drills. “Automated data processing” is the pipeline that turns that imagery, plus historical drill and geochemical data, into ranked target zones using scripted (often AI-assisted) workflows rather than manual interpretation alone. Farmonaut’s own satellite-based mineral detection service is built on exactly this combination, which is why the phrase shows up in coverage of exploration companies like the three profiled here.

The “author” question has a concrete, checkable answer. Companies listed in Canada file technical reports under National Instrument 43-101 on SEDAR+; companies reporting to the U.S. SEC use Subpart 1300 of Regulation S-K (Item 1302 specifically), which requires that mineral resource and reserve disclosures — and the exploration data behind them, including remote-sensing and geophysical work — be based on studies signed off by a named Qualified Person (QP). The rule also requires the filer to name the QP’s employer and state whether that person or firm has any ownership or royalty interest in the property, so a reader can judge independence, not just credentials.

A durable four-step check for finding who actually authored a specific remote-sensing or data-processing section, for any company and any year:

• ✔ Locate the technical report — SEDAR+ for TSX/TSXV-listed explorers (Perpetua’s Canadian filings, NV Gold Corp, White Gold Corp), EDGAR for SEC filers (Perpetua’s U.S. filings as a dual-listed issuer).
• ✔ Open the Certificate of Qualified Person (NI 43-101 filings) or the Item 1302 qualified-person disclosure (S-K 1300 filings) — each discipline area, including data verification and remote sensing, is assigned to a named, credentialed QP with a signature date.
• ✔ Check the QP’s listed employer against the registrant’s name — an in-house QP and an independent consulting-firm QP carry different weight for due diligence.
• ✔ Note the report’s effective date. A company that re-files or amends its technical report replaces the named QP and the date — so the “author” of record changes whenever the underlying study is updated.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=npvz1pjixhE

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4tYtMAyVwAo

NV Gold Corp and White Gold Corp: How the 2026 Field Season Compares

NV Gold Corp is running a 5,000-metre (15,000-foot) reverse-circulation program at its 100%-owned Slumber Gold Project, 80.5 kilometres northwest of Winnemucca and 35 kilometres west of the Sleeper gold deposit in Humboldt County, Nevada. Per the company’s August 6, 2026 announcement, the program calls for 20–30 holes drilled 175–375 metres deep, starting in September 2026 and running six to eight weeks; the same release disclosed a new 1,500-acre lease connecting the Awakening and Slumber target areas.

White Gold Corp is mid-way through what it calls the largest diamond-drill campaign in its history — three rigs across the Golden Saddle, Arc, Ryan’s Surprise and VG deposits on its Yukon land package, backed by a funding partnership with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited. The program was announced May 28, 2026; as of the company’s most recent update it had completed roughly 7,000 metres across 18 holes toward a total guided range of 15,000–20,000 metres for the year.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pUOxA_3aY6s

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HXcXrTavR7Q

Antimony: The Critical Mineral Riding Along with Stibnite’s Gold

The U.S. Geological Survey finalized its 2025 List of Critical Minerals on November 7, 2025, covering 60 minerals; antimony has been on that list since it first launched. The reason shows up in the trade data: the U.S. was 100% net import-reliant for antimony in 2024, according to USGS’s Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 as cited by the National Mining Association’s supply-chain analysis — because the country has had no active primary antimony mine in recent years.

Stibnite isn’t a new idea for antimony, either: the district supplied roughly 90% of America’s antimony during World War II, per Forbes’ account of the deposit’s history, before going dormant in the 1990s. Perpetua’s restart is being sized to matter at a national-security scale — Forbes reports the project could eventually supply up to 35% of U.S. antimony demand once ramped, a figure central to the case for the March 2026 EXIM loan. Against the 149-million-pound reserve and 99.8-million-pound resource noted above, that 35% share is a demand-side ceiling, not a production guarantee; it depends on how much total antimony the U.S. is consuming when Stibnite reaches full output.

Source: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025 via National Mining Association (100% net import-reliant, 2024); Forbes, Mar. 31, 2026, on the EXIM loan case (up to 35% of U.S. demand). *Simplified 1:1 displacement; ignores demand growth and other supply sources.

Idaho’s Stibnite-Yellow Pine district also carries decades of legacy disturbance from mining that predates modern reclamation law, which is why remediation is written into Perpetua’s plan rather than deferred — see Farmonaut’s own walkthrough of the process at Reclamation and Rehabilitation of Gold Mine Sites: 5 Steps.

Try It: Stibnite Antimony Supply Calculator

Plug in your own assumptions about U.S. antimony demand and Stibnite’s share of it to see how many pounds per year that implies and how much of the 149-million-pound reserve it would draw down.

Assumes Stibnite output displaces imports one-for-one and ignores U.S. demand growth, other domestic antimony sources (e.g., recycling), and ramp-up years before full production. It is a planning sketch, not a forecast — use it to test different demand and share assumptions against the 149-million-pound reserve and 99.8-million-pound resource figures cited above.

Top Ruby Mines in the World — and Why Satellites Matter There Too

Two deposits dominate global ruby supply today. Myanmar’s Mogok Stone Tract is the historic source — the traditional heart of the ruby trade for centuries — while Montepuez, in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, was only discovered in 2009 and has since become one of the largest ruby deposits ever found. Montepuez covers 33,600 hectares and is 75% owned by Gemfields Group, with the remaining 25% held by Mozambican partner Mwiriti Limitada, per Gemfields’ own mine page.

Because rough rubies don’t trade on a public exchange, Gemfields’ periodic Bangkok auctions are the closest thing to a live “ruby price.” The April 21–25, 2025 auction generated $7.2 million on 250,004 carats offered — an average of $39.47 per carat, with 20 of 21 lots sold — according to Mining Weekly’s report on that sale. A mini-auction held September 29–October 3, 2025 realized $11 million on 297,449 carats at an average $59.43 per carat, per Mining Weekly’s follow-up coverage, which also reported that Gemfields pushed its usual year-end auction into early 2026 because of delays commissioning a second processing plant and disruption from illegal mining around Montepuez.

Zoom out to the whole company and the picture flips: Gemfields’ total revenue across its ruby and emerald business fell from $199.4 million in FY2024 to $135.1 million in FY2025 — a 32.3% decline — which it attributed to a first-half emerald-mine suspension and lower recovery of premium-grade rubies, per DiamondWorld’s report on the FY2025 results, published March 26, 2026. So a rising per-carat price at one auction didn’t offset a supply-driven revenue drop for the year — a distinction no single “top ruby mines” ranking captures, because rank depends on which of these two numbers you’re reading.

For tracking any other named ruby deposit — Winza in Tanzania, historic Thai/Cambodian sources, or new finds — the reliable method is the same one this article uses for gold: pull the operating company’s own auction results and investor disclosures rather than a static list, since a single plant outage or a change in premium-grade recovery can reorder the rankings within a year.

Farmonaut’s Role: Satellite-Based Mineral Detection

At Farmonaut, we build the remote-sensing and automated-data-processing layer that companies like the three profiled above rely on for target generation. Our satellite-based mineral detection platform combines multispectral and hyperspectral imagery with AI classification to flag prospective ground for gold, antimony, lithium, cobalt, copper and rare earths before any drill mobilizes — the same category of work a technical report’s QP would be certifying.

For a concrete look at the output, our satellite-driven 3D mineral prospectivity mapping example shows the kind of interactive subsurface model and target-ranking output this workflow produces for technical and investment teams.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IG_UAHFPjaU

Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=h-pl1v1ppM4

If you’re evaluating a property and want a target-generation pass before committing drill budget, start with our Get a Quote form.

Reclamation and Social License: What All Three Companies Report

Perpetua’s permitting record ties gold and antimony production to concurrent restoration of a historic mine site, discussed above and in Farmonaut’s 5-step reclamation guide. White Gold Corp’s Yukon program runs under a funding partnership with Agnico Eagle Mines rather than as a standalone junior, which changes the reporting and oversight involved. NV Gold Corp, still at an earlier resource-definition stage at Slumber, has less to report yet on remediation because it hasn’t built anything to remediate — a distinction worth keeping in mind when comparing “sustainability” claims across companies at different project stages.

If you need a technical-report citation checked, a QP identity verified, or want to discuss a remote-sensing pass over your own property, reach us through Contact Us.

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