What have been the latest developments at SEMS Exploration?

The West African mineral exploration sector is in a state of expectation. Most commodities are well-priced and gold, which is key for our market, is breaking records. Yet funding is not flowing through to early-stage gold exploration companies. Even in countries that have had a good run in recent years, like Côte d’Ivoire, exploration budgets of most junior companies remain relatively small compared to the last cycle. In my opinion, this prolonged period of record-breaking prices will soon translate into an increased investment in early stage projects as there are many under-funded juniors operating in West Africa that provide exciting investment opportunities.

How does SEMS Exploration position to capture opportunities in the current market and which of your services are of most relevance in today’s context?

What is changing for us is the focus of our services. Traditionally, SEMS was seen as a project management group for foreign companies investing in West Africa. However, the West African market is evolving and maturing. There is now a large, experienced workforce in the sub-region (both expatriate and local) that has the necessary skills and experience to run field operations themselves. SEMS has therefore focussed on providing technical services that our customers may not have in-house, such as topographic and geophysical drone services, which is a great area of growth for us. 

Also, providing a multi-element analysis solution is an increasingly sought-after service. The lithium exploration boom created an improved awareness of the benefits multi-element data can provide to the wider mineral exploration process. SEMS has created a dedicated analysis facility in Abidjan to service that market.

Data management, which has always been a cornerstone service, is another area of growth for the company. “Data as a Service” encompasses our educational training courses, which are delivered on site or remotely, and aimed at supporting the client to maximise benefits from their in-house databases and from the application of Machine Learning techniques to generate, manage and interpret geological and geotechnical data.

Lastly, our mineralogy service is focussing on the provision of detailed petrographic descriptions of polished and thin sections. This service complements our geological mapping activities to provide the client with comprehensive mineral deposit and mineral resource studies.  

How is technology evolving to improve the accuracy (and costs) of early-stage exploration?

Previously, it was expensive for a company to undertake relatively routine airborne geophysical surveys, but today SEMS offers geophysical and topographic surveys using drones, which provide data of a similar quality and resolution but at a fraction of the cost. I must emphasize, however, that there is nothing that can fully replace fact geology gathered by a geologist walking the ground.

How has West Africa changed as a mining place in the last 10 years?

The most obvious change over the last decade is the security deterioration in the Sahel region, most noticeably impacting on Burkina Faso, which, 10-12 years ago, was the busiest mineral exploration country in the region. 

The other noticeable shift is the focus on local content requirements in most countries in the region. From our perspective, local content policies are a positive development as long as they are managed and implemented well. In Ghana, for example, these requirements have given SEMS the opportunity to work with larger mining groups such as Newmont that would previously have engaged expatriate service providers. 

What are your goals over the next 12 months?

We are always looking to improve and expand our technical services, particularly in terms of drone-based surveys and our Data-as-a-Service business. We will be acquiring more geophysical tools such as hyperspectral sensors to add to our fleet of drone supported magnetometers and LiDAR. We will widen our range of technical training courses with a focus on the application of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence in drill sample logging and data interpretation.

Geographically, we are always looking for opportunities to expand. We would like to expand our presence in the DRC and neighbouring countries, particularly focussing on strategic mineral exploration. SEMS is also considering establishing a presence in northeast Africa to cater for the growing interest in the Arabian-Nubian Shield.