Aerospace
Cornish Lithium received funding from Aerospace Cornwall (via the European Regional Development Fund) to pursue a remote-sensing geological mapping project.
The two major components of this project were a photogrammetric drone survey and an airborne hyperspectral survey. These were undertaken on the North coast of Cornwall between Gwithian and Newquay targeting cliff exposures and wave-cut platforms. A total of seven structures were targeted with the drone survey and a 35 km long, 100 m swathe of hyperspectral imagery was acquired.
Extracting mineral maps from the carefully processed hyperspectral datacube can allude to alteration signatures surrounding structures of key interest to Cornish Lithium. These signatures can be superimposed onto models built by combining the thousands of photographs captured during the drone survey to produce 3D, georeferenced, centimetre accurate models of cliff exposures.
Faults can be ranked by fracture density and magnitude of alteration to produce prospectivity profiles inland and along strike. Combining these alteration signatures from the hyperspectral imagery with the large-scale faults mapped with structure from motion has led to an innovative and novel approach to exploration which minimises time spent in the field and manages the risk of undertaking geological mapping exercises in dangerous locations.
