GOLD CHILE LWIR FINGERPRINT MAPPING

Two new high-grade gold veins found beside a working mine in Chile

A private explorer used Aster's predictive fingerprint maps to find near-mine targets, then recovered 325 g/t gold from a 25-tonne bulk sample.

7,000 km²surveyed from satellite
2 new veinsfound at predicted targets
6–34 g/t Aurock-chip assays
325 g/t Aurecovered from a 25 t bulk sample
BEFORE · SATELLITE SCENE
AFTER · GOLD TARGET MAP
Left: the raw satellite scene. Right: the LWIR gold fingerprint map; warm colours match the signature of the mine's known high-grade veins. The white marker is the existing mine.
01

The challenge

The client had just acquired a small underground mine working two quartz veins, each 1.0–1.5 m wide, which have produced about 35 tonnes of ore a day since the 1980s at grades above 10 g/t gold. They needed new veins nearby, and regional targets in similar geology, without months of blind prospecting.

02

Our approach

In March 2025 we surveyed 7,000 km² around the mine. The client's own vein locations were used to train our LWIR gold fingerprint models (LDFC and QDFC), which then scored every pixel of the survey area for the same spectral signature as the known high-grade veins. The result was a ranked map of near-mine and regional targets.

03

The result

Follow-up work on a cluster of compact targets just north of the mine found and sampled two new quartz–gold veins. Rock-chip assays returned 6 to 34 g/t gold. A 25-tonne bulk sample from the western vein, processed by gravity concentration in July 2025, recovered a grade of 325 g/t gold.

  1. MAR 2025Survey commissioned
  2. 2025Two new veins found and sampled
  3. JUL 2025325 g/t Au bulk sample

More results

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