Aterian starts drone magnetic survey of Botswana copper licences
(Alliance News) - Aterian PLC on Monday announced the start of an "AI-guided" programme covering its exploration licences in the Kalahari Copper Belt.
The Africa-focused mineral exploration and trading company said the high-resolution drone magnetic survey is the first stage of an exploration programme designed to generate high-priority drill targets across its copper portfolio in Botswana.
It added that the programme is part of the strategic collaboration with Lithosquare SAS, which Aterian first announced in December. At that time, it noted the possibility of an up to EUR1.4 million fully-funded, AI-led programme "across eight priority Aterian projects".
"The collaboration combines high-resolution field datasets with advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to accelerate exploration targeting and improve the identification of prospective copper-silver mineralisation across the company's Botswana portfolio," Aterian said on Monday.
It said the initial programme will focus on PL0199/2025 and PL0157/2024, its "two highest-priority licences". The resulting data will form "a critical input into Lithosquare's AI-driven exploration targeting workflow, where it will be integrated with geological, structural, satellite and other regional datasets to prioritise drill targets."
Aterian said that once equipment is calibrated and a magnetic base station is established, the survey will start with PL0199/2025 before progressing to PL0157/2024.
"The commencement of this high-resolution magnetic survey in Botswana, coming immediately after the highly encouraging magnetic interpretation at Agdz East in Morocco, demonstrates the very rapid and positive pace at which our exploration collaboration with Lithosquare is advancing," commented Aterian Executive Chair Charles Bray.
He added that the Kalahari belt "hosts major sediment-hosted copper-silver deposits, yet much of its prospective geology remains concealed beneath sand cover.
"High-resolution drone magnetics should allow us to identify subtle structures that cannot be adequately resolved through conventional regional datasets and focus our resources on the ranked targets offering the greatest discovery potential."
Bray concluded: "Aterian is building a fast-moving pipeline of increasingly well-defined copper-silver targets across Morocco and Botswana...shareholders can look forward to a strong and accelerating flow of exploration activity and results as we systematically advance the most compelling targets to drilling."
Shares in Aterian were down 5.3% at 26.04 pence around midday in London on Monday.
By Emma Curzon, Alliance News reporter
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