The approach
Four layers, correlated — not one signal trusted alone.
Ground truth is the foundation everything else is checked against. Each layer above it extends how far that ground truth reaches, and an alert only means something when layers agree — or when they disagree in a way that's worth a physical look.
04
Drone ground-truth sampling
Confirms actual water and soil chemistry — pH, copper, cobalt, cyanide. Satellites can flag that something changed; only a physical sample says what it is.
03
Satellite optical imagery — Sentinel-2
Watches downstream turbidity and vegetation-stress signals — early indicators that something in the water has changed, prioritising where a physical sample is needed most.
02
Satellite radar — Sentinel-1 (InSAR)
Tracks tailings dam surface deformation — a real, active early-warning technique that can detect ground movement months before a structural failure — cross-validated, never used alone.
01
Ground truth: boreholes, cores & instrumentation
Exploration borehole logs and geotechnical instrumentation — piezometers, inclinometers, seismographs — are the scientific backbone: the actual subsurface picture, not something a satellite can infer alone.
An AI layer correlates all four and raises alerts automatically when they disagree with each other or with expected baselines — aligned with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM), not a replacement for the Engineer of Record it requires.