1) Exploration companies face challenges in finding new mineral deposits as easily accessible shallow deposits have been discovered, requiring exploration in deeper and more difficult environments. Existing exploration tools and methods are stretched, requiring new exploration approaches. 2) Indonesia has potential for further energy and mineral discoveries given most of its territory remains unexplored thoroughly. However, modern geologists need updated information and help discovering resources more efficiently. 3) New exploration technologies can help address challenges by identifying anomalies remotely and reducing exploration time and costs compared to traditional methods. Combining old and new exploration tools can improve discovery success rates.

1. COAL ASIA MARCH 25 - APRIL 25, 2015 133
COMMENTARY
By George Barber
Marketing Partner Terra Energy & Resource Technologies Plc.
The Challenge of Modern Exploration
B
efore moving onto the title
subject, somehow or the
other I have ended up writing
articles for two extremely
enterprising and informative magazines
that are produced in Indonesia, namely
CoalAsia and OGE. As most of my articles
will be focused around early exploration
and new technology, there is the danger of
some overlap month by month, although
in reality the mineral business is different
to the hydrocarbon business, although
they are both involved in exploration
beneath the surface of the earth. I am
sure that there are people who do read
both magazines, therefore, I do make an
apology in advance, where one month you
read CoalAsia and you think you have read
this previously, you may well have, but it
will have been written in a different format
from the hydrocarbon article in OGE. Also
to write two completely different articles
each month is a drain on my brain cells
(whatever I have left).
Onto the title subject:
Exploration and mining companies
worldwide face the challenge of finding
mineral deposits to support a global
population expected to grow beyond 9
billion in 2050. Most of the shallow,
easily accessible deposits close to existing
infrastructure have been found. New
reserves are likely to be found much
deeper below the surface and in extreme or
challenging environments. These reserves
may well be smaller in size to what has
been discovered previously.
It is fair to say that the capabilities of
existing exploration tools and methods
are stretched to their limits, which means
that new ways of exploration have to
be developed. The cost of finding new
discoveries is rising and the number of
major new discoveries is decreasing.
Despite mineral exploration expenditure
reaching close to US $16 billion dollars
in 2012, triple the level of the 1980s,
discovery rates have continued to decline.
Geologically, Indonesia is a potential
and relevant region for the formation of
various energy and mineral resources.
Exploration activities have been carried
out since the 1800’s up to the present
time, with a huge success rate in numerous
areas. Among these various resources,
oil, gas, coal, tin, nickel, copper, and
gold have so far given an important
contribution to the Indonesian economy.
When we say that the easy resources
have been discovered, at the time of
discovery most of them was not easy to
discover and exploit. Today the majority
of Indonesian territory has not been
explored thoroughly, and therefore the
chance to discover new economical energy
and mineral deposits are likely to be
substantial. To do this, exploration should
be carried out in a sustainable and non-
invasive manner for all the reasons that we
are all aware of.
In my opinion, Indonesia is a geologist’s
dream; the volume of published material on
the geology of the Indonesian Archipelago
is overwhelming and has such diversity. The
reasons for this include Indonesia’s unique
position at the convergence of three major
tectonic plates, making it a natural laboratory
for the study of mountain building and active
tectonic processes.
Indonesia is truly a wonderful
and magical country that needs to be
appreciated for what it is. With over one
hundred active volcanoes and many more
extinct ones, with frequent earthquakes,
with basins that have more than 10 km of
Tertiary sediments adjacent to outcrops
of deep ocean floor sediments and mantle
material, with Pleistocene coral reefs now
uplifted a kilometer above sea level, etc.,
it is a spectacularly active area indeed. In
addition, it is well endowed with natural

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resources such as oil and gas, coal, and
a variety of economic minerals. Then
there are the country’s natural beauty, the
diversity of cultures and the abundance
of fossil faunas and floras, which vary
significantly throughout the archipelago.
All this has attracted many of the world’s
great geologists for more than 150 years
and many new geological concepts were
formulated in this region. Personally I only
have admiration for the early explorers,
the conditions that they endured and the
accuracy of the information that they
collected is totally astounding.
But having said that, a lot of the
information available is outdated. The
classic ‘The Geology of Indonesia’ by Van
Bemmelen (1949) was comprehensive, but
is now more than 60 years old. Many of
its outcrop descriptions are still useful, but
the tectonic concepts are out of date, and a
wealth of new material has been gathered
since, but as far as I can see from reading
various articles on the geological history
of Indonesia, the references have not been
updated, or if they have, they have not
been published.
We do need to remember that a lot of
information available today is from these
early explorers and geologists, which
surely is not sufficient for a country that
wants to develop. Indonesia is a geology
paradise, but modern geologists need help
if resources are to be discovered. They
also need help in achieving results at a
faster rate than they can when utilizing
traditional methods, going out into the
wilderness, chopping down trees, in some
cases not knowing where or indeed what
they are looking for, using information
that is outdated, along with some updated
data acquired by air gravity and air
magnetics to assist them in their quest is
not the solution.
Therefore in a world of depletion, rising
costs of exploration and market instability,
modern or up to date technologies address
some of the more difficult challenges
of modern exploration, which enables
a company, its clients, its investors and
partners to identify and explore natural
resource deposits accurately, cost effectively,
and quickly.
New technology used in modern
exploration
Some of the features of new
technology used in modern exploration
include:
• It does not require invasive,
environmentally or socially damaging
techniques
• It can be done on a remote basis
(utilizing remote sensing data acquired
via satellites, digital elevation data,
topographic maps, etc.).
• It reduces exploration timing from
years to months and reduces costs to a
fraction of those posed by traditional
methods.
• It enables governments to realize
certain strategic goals in relation to
the assessment of energy (oil, gas,
geothermal) and mineral resource
potential for areas of any size in a
discrete fashion.
• It’s competitive advantage rests on
the utilization and combination of
proprietary, innovative and proven
exploration technologies, not available
to most explorers.
• By combining some “Old School”
tools and some “New School” tools
with different methods (up to 8) and
unique data sets, all of which will
reduce the inherent risks of traditional
methods.
• Each method identifies anomalies if
they are present. When anomalies from
different methods coalesce within
the same area for a specific mineral,
the confidence rises. From this
perspective, the process is simple. The
more data and the more agreements
that can be found will simply increase
the confidence in the results.
• A comprehensive knowledge will lead
to the maximization of the economic
value of the mineral resources
and lends the ability to a country
or company to protect itself from
unscrupulous exploitation.
The Challenges
Exploration is a challenge in
more ways than one, there are many
components to a project before
production commences and a return
of costs are made. Any company that
[ COMMENTARY ]

3. COAL ASIA MARCH 25 - APRIL 25, 2015 135
can save time and cut costs by carrying
out less unproductive exploration has
to profit in the long-term. This is the
challenge of modern exploration, how
to find resources that are and will
increasingly become more difficult
to find and produce, whilst at the
same time decreasing the time frame,
which of course reduces the cost of the
overall project.
Companies have no choice, they
have to find new ways, otherwise
exploration will not progress along the
path that it should. The aircraft industry,
the shipping industry, the car industry
are always looking at new ways to make
the mode of transport more efficient, the
components that they construct for the
planes, ships and cars are made lighter
materials to give more fuel efficiency
and to cut the operating costs down
whilst at the same time cramming more
of us into or onto the transport. The
exploration industry should be doing the
same, but it appears that the exploration
industry is working differently from
other industries; they are spending more
and coming up with less.
I know that all of us explorers like to
go to different parts of the archipelago,
we like to travel along the bumpy dirt
tracks, get into the not so fast speed
boats and imagine ourselves as Tarzan
or Jane of the Jungle, oh and by the
way, complaining throughout the trip.
The questions to the investor are: is
this efficient, do we know what we
were looking for, if we did, did we find
it? Hopefully yes, but would the same
exploration trip have been more efficient
if there was something positive to justify
the trip. The challenge of the modern
day explorer is to explore something that
you have more than a 70% change of
being successful in and not a less than
20% chance.
Of course the moneymen will be
happy to save money, but then again most
bean counters do not understand anything
outside of counting and saving money, no
matter how much one tries to convince
them. Therefore another challenge to
exploration is to convince the “Bean
Counters” that we have done everything
possible to ensure that our long and
expensive Tarzan/Jane of the Jungle trip is
worth it.
In the writers view, the only way
of doing this is to utilise modern day
exploration methods that will give you
something to go and look at instead of
hoping that you will find something.
After all, can a trip on the river into
the jungle enable you to see beneath
the ground that you are standing on,
in my experience it can not, although
we do see traces of minerals in a river,
we do see outcrops and we do see
other tell-tale signs that may justify the
cost for mobilizing costly seismic and
maybe drilling equipment as well as the
exploration team.
Would it not be far more effective to
know in advance that there is something
that will make the trip worth it, I know
the answer to this. Do not get me wrong,
I am not a Bean Counter, I love going on
all of these jungle trips, especially the
river trips, but I would prefer to do these
trips knowing full well that I am going
for something that is reasonably positive
and in fact the trip is about confirming
our next steps towards production. This
is what a modern day field trip should
be about, not looking for a needle in a
haystack scenario.
Modern exploration combines the
traditional methods, it has to combine
the Tarzan /Jane of the Jungle trips, there
is very little choice to this, but it is far
better to do all of this whilst embracing
modern exploration methods, unless
of course the CEO of the company is
happy to waste the shareholders money,
unfortunately at this moment of time this
is what is happening, although the CEO
does not know this as he does not know
how to meet the challenge of modern
exploration.
Whilst we should admire the past
explorers and we can imagine ourselves
as Tarzan or Jane, we really should
move with the times, many industries
have, they have made our life’s more
pleasant in most circumstances, although
as we all know a river trip is far better
than being sat in a modern day car stuck
in the traffic of Jakarta going to our
modern day aeroplane, although we may
be more comfortable than we would be
in the boat.