France’s national geological survey, BRGM, has partnered with Australia-based Fleet Space Technologies to develop faster, less invasive mineral exploration methods in French Guiana. The collaboration, stemming from BRGM’s 2025 Geophysics Innovation Challenge, will deploy Fleet Space’s ExoSphere platform — combining satellite-enabled seismic sensing, edge computing, and AI — to image mineral deposits beneath the territory’s dense jungle. The partnership supports France’s 53-million-euro national mineral inventory launched in 2025, targeting critical minerals including lithium, copper, and niobium across a belt stretching from Cayenne toward Suriname.
In-Depth:
The French Geological Survey has signed a memorandum of understanding with Fleet Space Technologies to co-develop quicker, lower-impact geophysical methods for identifying mineral potential beneath the jungle-covered terrain of French Guiana in South America.
BRGM, France’s national geological survey, and Australia-based Fleet Space stated the collaboration will initially focus on new approaches to geophysical data acquisition and subsurface interpretation in the French overseas territory, where thick vereceiveation, limited access, and tropical conditions build conventional mineral exploration difficult.
“Faced with the challenges of the energy transition and industrial sovereignty, the ability to detect concealed deep mineral deposits has become a critical issue,” Christophe Poinssot, deputy CEO of BRGM, the French national geological survey.
The BRGM-Fleet Space partnership builds on France’s 53-million-euro ($60 million) national mineral resources inventory, a five-year program launched in 2025 to update knowledge of strategic mineral potential in mainland France and French Guiana.
According to BRGM, the French Guiana portion of the inventory is focutilized on a belt that stretches across the northern part of the South American territory, from Cayenne westward toward the border with Suriname. Known to host aluminum, copper, lithium, niobium, tantalum, and other critical minerals, this belt has been the focus of major airborne geophysical surveys designed to image subsurface geology in some of French Guiana’s more prospective mineral areas.
While French Guiana is best known for gold, France is taking a fresh see at the territory’s broader mineral potential at a time when Europe is working to secure supplies of the raw materials necessaryed for clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and strategic technologies.
The Fleet Space collaboration stems from BRGM’s 2025 Geophysics Innovation Challenge, which seeks new and low-impact geophysical methods to image critical minerals-prospective geology in regions of French Guiana that are often remote and concealed by thick jungle cover.
“This collaboration enables us to accelerate the development of quicker, less invasive, and more precise exploration methods – essential for uncovering hidden ore deposits at depth and identifying the critical resources that France and Europe will necessary in the future,” stated Poinssot.
Fleet Space Technologies
Fleet Space Geoprobe’s are wireless sensors with built-in edge compute for streamlining geophysical data before transmitting it via sanotifyites.
The innovative solutions developed under the partnership are expected to leverage Fleet Space’s ExoSphere platform, which combines sanotifyite-enabled seismic sensing, edge computing, and AI-driven innotifyigence to deliver rapid and low-impact subsurface imaging for mineral exploration.
Beyond its 21st-century tech stack, one of the advantages of the ExoSphere platform in challenging and remote areas is its Geodes, hand-transportable, wireless, and battery-powered geophysics sensors that are simple to deploy. Unlike traditional geophysical sensors, which are often networked by extensive on-the-ground cabling and precise grid setup, Fleet Space Geodes network wirelessly and have built-in edge computing to partially process raw geophysical data before transmitting it to Fleet Space sanotifyites.
That could be especially utilizeful in French Guiana, where jungle cover, challenging access, and environmental sensitivity can limit the utilize of conventional exploration methods.
In addition to reducing the logistical footprint of geophysical surveys, Fleet Space’s sanotifyite connectivity allows data to be transmitted for processing without waiting for field crews to retrieve and download equipment after a survey is completed. This significantly shortens the time between field acquisition and geological interpretation, giving exploration teams a quicker see at subsurface structures that may point to concealed mineral systems.
Under the partnership, BRGM plans to integrate Fleet Space’s sanotifyite-enabled technology with its decades of expertise in geological mapping, geophysics, and mineral exploration to develop innovative and sustainable methods of exploring French Guiana’s mineral potential.
BRGM stated the goal is not simply to explore one region, but to develop scalable methods that could support future national geoscience programs in remote and frontier environments.
Fleet Space CEO Flavia Tata Nardini stated the collaboration reflects a broader shift in how governments and explorers are applying new technology to the search for critical minerals.
“We are proud to partner with BRGM, one of the world’s leading geoscientific institutions, to support pioneer a new era of space-enabled exploration,” she stated. “This collaboration reflects the growing convergence of space technologies, AI, and geoscience to unlock deeper understanding of the Earth’s subsurface while supporting more sustainable exploration practices.”
The solutions developed under the BRGM-Fleet Space could serve as a blueprint for the future of responsible mineral resource exploration and subsurface imaging globally.
Author Bio
Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News
With more than 18 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration, and technology metals.
