{"id":20578,"date":"2025-10-08T15:20:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T15:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/?post_type=rbc_tl&p=20578\/building-the-future-what-to-watch-as-build-canada-homes-takes-shape"},"modified":"2025-11-06T23:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T23:18:14","slug":"from-rock-to-roi-how-calgarys-geologicai-turns-core-samples-into-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"rbc_tl","link":"https:\/\/www.rbc.com\/en\/thought-leadership\/the-growth-project\/from-rock-to-roi-how-calgarys-geologicai-turns-core-samples-into-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"From Rock to ROI: How Calgary\u2019s GeologicAI Turns Core Samples into Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Artificial Intelligence is poised to reshape how value is created across Canada\u2019s economy. To understand that shift, RBC Thought Leadership interviewed more than two dozen firms that are on the frontlines of building or deploying AI for Bridging the Imagination Gap: How Canadian Companies Can Become Global Leaders in AI Adoption<\/a>. <\/em>The report distilled the patterns that emerged from those conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building on that report, the series of case studies go a level deeper: following one company\u2019s journey through specific problems, pivots and opportunities, helps illustrates the strategic choices and policy conditions that turn technical promise into economic and societal value.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In mining, the most important board-level decisions still hinge on results from distant lab tests\u2014where core samples are cut and analyzed to measure mineral content. These tests are often slow, costly, and logistically risky, taking 6\u201310 weeks<\/strong> at precisely the stage when capital is most at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GeologicAI moves the lab to the drill pad. Its AI-enabled sensors compress the sense\u2013think\u2013act loop to under 48 hours, turning scans into grade and NPV metrics that drive next-shift drilling decisions and reduce idle capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adoption depends on trusted translators<\/em>\u2014domain experts fluent in both geology and AI\u2014who can champion the shift and explain results in terms colleagues believe. Scaling that expertise along continued integration of new tools will be critical to scaling the technology within the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Canada, the lesson is clear: world-class AI research only becomes industrial leadership if policy incentives also target deployment and scale, not just R&D\u2014funding field-ready teams, adoption support, and speed-to-scale in critical minerals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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From Rock to ROI: How Calgary\u2019s GeologicAI Turns Cores into Knowledge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Picture this. It\u2019s nearly 40\u00b0C as a pair of geologists carefully extract two deep core samples from the 40,000-pound drill rig towering above them\u2014the highest point for miles in Australia’s scorching Pilbara desert. Sent from Sydney, the team\u2019s task was straightforward: retrieve the cores and escort them safely to geological assay lab 1,400 kilometres away in Perth. The tests would reveal whether the deposit has the potential to become a mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Battling oppressive heat and the clock, the window to act is short. The next phase requires loading the cores onto a Land Cruiser before navigating 200 kilometres of treacherous desert roads to a remote airfield and a waiting plane. These cores represented the final testing round for a proposed lithium mine, a pivotal step standing between their junior mining company and nearly AUD $500 million in funding should the core sample yield positive results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair of geologists, along with a handful of others staking their careers on the two-year-old mining venture, understand the thinning patience of their financiers. Each day spent waiting on core results equates to well over AUD $110,000 in foregone returns\u2014capital that an established mine could easily generate. The financiers know the stakes, but patience wanes with prolonged uncertainty. This was their eighth round-trip in five months, each journey a tense race against fading trust and tightening budgets. A dropped core, a missed flight, or another lengthy lab delay could shatter the fragile confidence holding this venture together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GeologicAI flips the script by bringing its AI-powered core scanning technology to the deposit\u2014eliminating many of the trips between assay lab and drill site and speeding up assessment processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exploration is a relentless triangle of geology, capital, and time\u2014often played out in the planet\u2019s remotest corners. For Grant Sanden, Calgary-based founder and CEO of GeologicAI, it\u2019s more than a logistical headache\u2014it\u2019s the central problem of mining: how to turn rock into reliable knowledge fast enough to guide investment. That\u2019s the problem GeologicAI set out to solve.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A veteran of Canada\u2019s resource sector, Sanden had watched scores of projects like the scene outlined above stall on the same bottleneck: the time it took to turn rock into knowledge. He knew the issue was not about pulling more samples\u2014at 300 metres down you can drill forever and still miss the truth. The real cost lay in the slow, fragmented data loop that leaves geologists guessing, financiers fretting, and drill rigs burning cash in limbo. What if, he asked, the industry stopped treating assays as an after-the-fact report card and started treating them as a the key to a real-time decision engine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Numbers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/th><\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
6 -10 days<\/strong><\/strong><\/td>Typical number of days delay<\/strong> for lab results to arrive from core samples, which determine how much metal is in the rock. Until then, multi-million-dollar drilling and investment decisions are on hold.<\/td><\/tr>
24 \u2013 48 hours<\/a><\/strong>\u202f<\/a><\/strong><\/td>How long<\/strong> it takes GeologicAI to deliver the same results using its on-site, AI-enabled sensors.<\/td><\/tr>
$US 13b<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/td>Annual globalnon-ferrous exploration budgets <\/strong>(2023).<\/td><\/tr>
$US 60m<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/td>Geologic\u202fAI\u2019s July\u202f2025 raise<\/strong> to scale globally amid the data\u2011centre\/energy\u2011transition mineral crunch; headcount ~220, ~80% in Canada.<\/td><\/tr>
5<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/td>Number <\/strong>of continents GeologicAI is active in.<\/td><\/tr>
16<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/td>Median years <\/strong>from discovery to first production globally.        <\/td><\/tr>
6<\/a><\/strong><\/td>Per cent<\/strong> of firms in the mining sector that currently use AI.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Sanden\u2019s hypothesis was straightforward: if core samples could be scanned where they\u2019re drilled, mining exploration and development decisions would no longer hinge on assay lab results that could take several weeks. In practice, this involved a truck-towed trailer fitted with hyperspectral, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and visual sensors, connected to machine-learning models that classify rock type, estimate grade and assign a preliminary dollar value. The trailer could also be lifted by helicopter<\/a> to a mining project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After building the prototype and conducting some initial field tests, Sanden and his team proved the AI-powered system could return a usable dataset in roughly 48 hours\u2014compressing what had been an eight-to-twelve-week cycle and giving geologists enough confidence to refine drill plans before the next shift.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Lesson #1: The 24-Hour Decision Loop<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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In mining exploration, GeologicAI shows that the real power of industrial AI is not only in accurate prediction, but also in compressing the sense\u2013think\u2013act cycle so it keeps pace with daily operations. By placing a multi-sensor lab at the drill pad, GeologicAI cuts the turnaround time for critical data from weeks to hours. Routing those scans through AI models that output economic metrics\u2014grade, tonnage, NPV deltas\u2014GeologicAI can turn enhanced data into better decisions before the next two-week shift even begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI models that generate economic metrics\u2014grade, tonnage, net present value (NPV) deltas\u2014allow its mobile labs to deliver the analysis needed for better decisions before the next site shift begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n