Mapping Groundwater with SkyTEM

Authors: Dr. Flemming Effersø2 Bill Brown1;

1
SkyTEM Canada Inc,, Ayr, Ontario. 2SkyTEM ApS, Aarhus, Denmark

SUMMARY
The ability to reveal the availability and movement of groundwater can be a huge asset for countries and regions with the
need to responsibly and sustainably manage their aquifers.
The SkyTEM method, specifically developed to map buried aquifers, is widely accepted globally as the principal
technique for mapping water resources. SkyTEM is an innovative and technologically advanced airborne geophysical
system capable of mapping the top 500 metres of the Earth in fine detail and in 3 dimensions. SkyTEM was conceived
and engineered in Denmark, a country with a reputation for environmental care and R&D. SkyTEM helps geological
organizations and government water agencies on seven continents unearth a wealth of information about their aquifers
and aids in their understanding of how geology and mankind can affect, and be affected by, groundwater resources. The
SkyTEM method has mapped water resources on a Galapagos Island, important agricultural areas in the USA, Australia,
Africa and India, islands in the Caribbean and Indian Ocean and even Antarctica. Recognized for its ability to quickly
and accurately map geology in fine detail, the SkyTEM method is also employed globally for mineral and oil & gas
exploration as well as environmental and engineering investigations.
This white paper provides results from recent global water exploration projects – from finding new fresh water
sources to identifying groundwater recharge areas, saline water encroachment and more.

Figure 1: The SkyTEM system

INTRODUCTION

Water is essential for life on earth. Two thirds of Earth's surface is covered by water and oceans hold about 97% of all
our water. In the remaining 3% of fresh, or non-saline water, groundwater provides us with 30% of all our drinking water
while 68% is trapped in a frozen state. Less than 2% is available as surface water. This limited supply of available surface
and groundwater is the main source of drinking water for the planet’s seven billion plus people. In recent decades as
demand for water increases we witness falling water levels in almost all of the world’s wells, and many are beginning to
run dry.

According to a recent NASA study one third of the Earth's largest groundwater basins are being over-exploited.
Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers, in locations from India and China to the United States and France have
removed water quicker than it can be replaced by rain and snow and their sustainability is at a critical point. (see

AIRBORNE SURVEYS WORLDWIDE SKYTEM SURVEYS APS TEL: +45 8620 2050 WWW.SKYTEM.COM

DYSSEN 2 VAT: 27704379 [email protected]

8200 AARHUS N, DENMARK 20160901

http://go.nasa.gov/1G3fLIV). Depletion of water resources is an immediate and growing concern and is creating
overwhelming challenges for the next generations.

Figure 2: Global Freshwater Resources

A Holistic Approach (if you can’t measure it then you can’t manage it)
Since there is so much more groundwater than surface water on Earth and because it is an important part of the
hydrological cycle, groundwater should be managed in an integrated way with other water resources. We must be careful
in how we interact with groundwater as it takes only a few contaminants to damage them for generations. To deal with
critical groundwater issues and begin to manage limited resources sustainably we must develop an informed
understanding of the aquifers.
As our available fresh water becomes increasingly scarce and valuable many are calling groundwater the new oil.
However, unlike the oil industry, few governments are mapping the resource in a systematic way. Airborne geophysical
methods have been used for decades in oil exploration. SkyTEM advanced the technique and engineered an airborne
method that now makes it possible to map water resources efficiently and effectively.

Aquifer Diagram from EcoPerspective

https://johncornacchia.wordpress.com Figure 3: Aquifer Diagram from EcoPerspective

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 Hidden in aquifers, groundwater is a body of permeable and porous saturated rock and intricate networks of buried
river channels through which water moves. Mapping and protecting this hidden resource is a challenging task. To begin
to manage groundwater effectively and sustainably dependable, accurate, high-resolution subsurface data must be
collected and used to monitor and manage:
 groundwater levels within groundwater basins
 groundwater quality degradation
 land surface subsidence
 changes in surface flow and surface water quality that directly affect groundwater levels or quality
 changes in surface flow and surface water quality that are caused by groundwater pumping
Denmark is one of the few countries to have conducted a countrywide groundwater mapping programme. This
major initiative took over a decade to accomplish and required the development of unique tools and techniques. Buried
aquifers are challenging to map because they are invisible to most existing exploration technologies. They can cover huge
areas in the subsurface and range from those present in the near surface to several hundreds of metres depth. They can be
connected to other aquifers via intricate networks of buried channels that meander in the subsurface as much as they do
on the surface. Groundwater recharge can come from rain and snow and rivers and streams and are vulnerable to adverse
human activities. Ground based methods of data collection such as boreholes or geophysical studies are conventional
methods employed to map groundwater but these methods are slow, require ease of access to study areas and even a small
area can require substantial financial resources to map in detail. Faced with these challenges and with a plan to map all
of their principal aquifers, Danish scientists engineered a unique airborne geophysical method called SkyTEM.

THE DANISH GROUNDWATER MAPPING PROGRAMME

In Denmark, as in much of the world, the supply of drinking water is based entirely on groundwater resources. The
Danish Environmental Protection Agency decided that before land could be slated for urban development it first had to
first be examined to determine if aquifers were present in order to protect them from potentially harmful human activities.
In an effort to make sound decisions on how and where to protect these critical resources it was important to base decisions
on accurate and reliable information, in this case, spatially dense hydrogeological maps. In 1999, the Danish Government
initiated the National Groundwater Mapping Programme aimed at obtaining a detailed description of Danish aquifers
with respect to localisation, extension, distribution and interconnection as well as vulnerability against contaminants. The
Mapping Programme covered approx. 40 percent of Denmark and following 15 years of work, the mapping of Denmark’s
groundwater is now complete. Denmark is one of a few countries in the world where the groundwater is so clean that
consumers can enjoy a glass of water directly from the tap, without any need for added chlorine or other chemicals. See
https://stateofgreen.com/en/news/15-years-of-groundwater-mapping-complete.

Drilling boreholes is not enough

In most parts of the world groundwater mapping is based on only one data source - drilling information. Consider however
that a 6 inch borehole represents less than 1/millionth of one acre. A borehole will provide precise information about
geology in the immediate vicinity of the borehole but any inferences made about the surrounding geology is a leap of
faith or at best a guess. Boreholes are expensive and sometimes difficult to drill in certain locations and the result is often
scattered information with low borehole density and few drillings extending to sufficient depths. Inadequate drilling
information can lead to uncertainties and low confidence levels in geological interpretations and hydrogeological models.
Ground based geophysical methods produce highly accurate three dimensional data sets, but are slow and difficult
to employ in hilly terrain or populated areas. In the late 1990s when Denmark was researching groundwater mapping
methods they determined that available airborne systems, while able to collect data in rugged or inaccessible terrain, were
not able to detect the subtle variations in geological layers required to accurately map buried aquifers. Conventional
airborne systems were designed as “bump detectors for mineral exploration” and could provide either near surface or
deep images – but not both. In order to quickly and economically map aquifers from near surface to depth in one pass, a
new airborne method was required. A Danish R&D team of leading geophysicists, hydrologists and scientists within
government and universities set out to develop a method capable of mapping the near surface concurrently with mapping
to depths of about 350 m – the interval wherein the aquifers resided. They also set out to collect highly accurate noise
free data that was robust enough to create advanced mapping products within a few days of being acquired

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 Figure 4: Aquifers in Denmark:
http://www.geus.dk/gerda/groundwater_mapping-uk.htm

With these specific aims in mind SkyTEM, a high-resolution helicopter-borne electromagnetic (AEM) system was
developed. With the new SkyTEM system up to 1,100 line kilometer data can be collected daily covering 200-250 km2
to a depth of 500 or more metres.
The geophysical data collected does not replace, but complements existing borehole data, thereby reinforcing the
geological interpretation, which in turn leads to greater certainty of identified economical and productive drill targets.
Once the area has been mapped with SkyTEM, the data can be interpreted for other targets as well, including location
and extent of salt water encroachment, groundwater recharge areas, surface and groundwater connections, contaminant
plumes and inputs for geotechnical and environmental engineering studies such as mine tailing site selection.
SkyTEM is a major technological breakthrough – one that changes how aquifers are mapped. It is the first system
engineered with a Dual Moment transmitter design that allows for the collection of accurate images from both shallow
and deep geology (see Figure 5). The advanced engineering includes a low-noise receiver for detecting subtle geological
changes, the ability to stay calibrated throughout acquisition so that depth to, and depth of the groundwater can be
calculated accurately. The SkyTEM frame is rigid enough to place an array of ancillary sensors including a magnetometer,
laser altimeters, video cameras and GPS equipment.

Figure 5: Data acquired from the SkyTEM508 system

The first commercial SkyTEM survey was performed in 2003 and SkyTEM Surveys ApS was officially launched
in April 2004. Since then government scientific agencies, consulting firms and the agriculture sector have used SkyTEM

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to collect the subsurface geophysical data they need to understand and sustain their groundwater resources. This White
Paper describes some of this work.

Let’s Get Geophysical (From Wikipedia)

Exploration Geophysics uses physical methods (e.g., seismic, gravitational, magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic) at
the surface of the Earth to measure the physical properties, that is, the relative electrical resistivity or conductivity of
various earth materials along with anomalies in those properties. The figure below provides typical
resistivity/conductivity values of various earth materials. Geophysics is most often used to detect or infer the presence
and position of economically useful geological deposits, such as ore minerals; fossil fuels; geothermal reservoirs; and
groundwater reservoirs. Geophysical techniques can be compared to computed tomography (CT) scans performed on the
human body as they are noninvasive ways to diagnose or flesh out geological features and conditions. Geological features
can be located, mapped, and characterized in three dimensions by detecting variations, or anomalies, and airborne
geophysics has been an integral part of mineral and petroleum exploration programs since the 1950s.
Electromagnetic methods are particularly useful among the geophysical methods since there are strong correlations
between both the measured resistivity and the lithology of the subsurface, and between the resistivity values and water
salinity.

Figure 6: Representative chart (adapted from Palacky, 1987)

illustrates very generally how the resistivities of important
rock groups compare to each other. This type of figure is
given in most texts on applied geophysics

CASE STUDIES
Hydrogeological Mapping in Northeastern British Columbia
In 2015 Geoscience BC (GBC) launched the Peace Project – a subsurface mapping project designed to collect new
information about groundwater within an 8,000 square kilometer area in northeast BC, Canada. This region of the
province has been a focus of petroleum exploration and development since 1952 and participating partner companies
included the BC Oil and Gas Commission, ConocoPhillips and Progress Energy as well as several Treaty 8 First Nations.
The main priority of the project, comprising of the collection 21,000 line kilometers of SkyTEM data, was to map
aquifers in the area to a depth of at least 300 meters. A secondary priority was to complete the airborne data acquisition
before hunting and trapping season began. This required that all data collection be completed within seven (7) weeks
from start up. SkyTEM312FAST was selected for the data acquisition. The system operates at speeds of 120-150 km/h,
and all data was acquired in only forty-three (43) days.
The figure below (Figure 7) shows SkyTEM airborne results (left) and gamma log borehole results (right). The
paleochannel in the area lies at about 10 meters depth and is about 50 meters deep as mapped by SkyTEM. The gamma
results show the depth to bedrock at each well (numbers near red and yellow dots – yellow dots indicate sand/gravel).
Note the outline of the paleochannel as interpreted from the borehole data and how it matches the airborne electromagnetic
(AEM) results. These two data sets were done independently and neither processing group saw the other's results.
Conclusions from the comparison of airborne and ground geophysical data are:
 the airborne data is in good agreement with the drilling data;

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  many holes were drilled at various depths to delineate the aquifer. Several were far from the paleochannel;
 the airborne data was collected in a few minutes whereas the drilling required many months;
 no dollar figures for the drill program are available but given the time and money required to drill
approximately 24 holes it is expected the airborne data was significantly less expensive to obtain;
 to save time and money and increase the chances of striking water, it is highly recommended that SkyTEM
data is collected in order to select and optimize drill targets. This drill data can then be used for verification
and further refinement of the airborne data interpretation model.

Figure 7: EM (left) and Gamma log (right) results

Carlos Salas (Vice-President Geoscience BC) said:

“SkyTEM312FAST is an incredibly efficient system, and we are impressed by the great results we have achieved so far.
Not only does the SkyTEM system map the near surface aquifers we were looking for, it now seems the system has a
much greater depth of penetration than we expected for resolving much deeper geology. The ability to review high quality
data several times a week was also of benefit to our program.”

Airborne Survey Increases Odds of Finding Water

SkyTEM data was recently used successfully to optimize drilling programs in a water well field in the Lower Gascoyne
River in Western Australia for the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA). DAFWA used
SkyTEM to improve the success rate of finding quality water supplies in the Gascoyne as part of the region-changing
Gascoyne Food Bowl Initiative. The results so far have increased irrigated agricultural production in the Gascoyne by
400 hectares.
To provide this water DAFWA selected water-drilling sites likely to contain water of sufficient quality and yield
based on SkyTEM’s airborne data. DAFWA principal research scientist Richard George says “previous drilling involved
a hit-and-miss technique in which there was just a one-in-five chance of finding water and even less chance of finding
water of suitable quality but the airborne electromagnetic surveying has doubled the odds of striking it lucky”.
The data was processed to reveal targets that were mapped for exploratory drilling. Of the seventy (70) targets
identified, DAFWA has already located more than thirty (30) sites suitable for production bores and 17 of these have
been equipped. “We’re running better than a one-in-three success rate of finding sufficient water-bearing sands, though
we’re still only half way through the program” Dr. George says. “By finding sites with high yield we can save on energy
as we don’t have to pump from such a long way down.”
Gascoyne growers worried by an increasingly dry Gascoyne River are already seeing the benefits of the water, using
it to bolster declining traditional sources. “Testing has also been prioritized on four (4) new production bores installed at
the end of the new power line,” Dr. George says. “These and another five (5) potential exploration sites located using the
AEM may be able to make available more water to assist industry in the short-term.”

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 Figure 8: Installing water production bores at Carnavon.
Credit: DAFWA

Conclusions from this study are:

 collecting high resolution SkyTEM data resulted in drilling significantly fewer exploratory holes;
 SkyTEM data contributes to the success of drilling programs and can often be collected for less than the cost
of a single borehole.

Groundwater Mapping in Botswana

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) published an article about their SkyTEM groundwater mapping
project over the Ramotswa Aquifer on the border between South Africa and Botswana). The aim of the project, carried
out in conjunction with consulting firm XRI Blue, was to generate new information about groundwater to facilitate
sustainable management and support water security and resilience for the two countries. Read more here:
http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/2016/02/exploring-underground-by-helicopter/
“This is tremendously useful for us,” said IWMI’s Karen Villholth who leads the initiative. “By digitally mapping
the subsurface in this way we can work out where the important aquifers are located, how large and deep they are, how
they are delimited by other geologic formations. From this we can determine where it would make sense to further explore
the aquifer through traditional means to identify good sites for drilling and managed aquifer recharge.”

Figure 9: International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and XRI team on the survey site
with SkyTEM system

Read see the entire article http://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/2016/02/exploring-underground-by-helicopter/

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Measuring Volumes of Water
SkyTEM was employed to collect data over a ninety-nine (99) square mile area of northwestern Nebraska. The area
is designated as a Special Management Area by the Natural Resources District (NRD) in response to seasonal water level
declines. The State of Nebraska webpage states “…as hoped, the electromagnetic survey provided extensive information
about the area's geology, aquifer characteristics and water in storage. The NRD's use of the data is on-going. This
summary is intended to help landowners in the project area access data showing the depth to aquifer material, the thickness
of the aquifer and other basic information.”

Figure 10: : Screen capture from State of Nebraska webpage

Once the State was able to confidently calculate volumes of available water they were able to identify:

 why many domestic wells had been reduced or had no ability to pump water
 potential water shortages and state of municipal wells
 Locations for new test holes
 why a new hydrogeological framework was required

Conclusions from the survey include:

 limited groundwater exists in the study area;
 aquifers are discontinuous and limited in size;
 once an aquifer has been identified monitoring wells can be placed in critical areas for continuous and year round
verifications and checks of available water;
 approximately 131.5 million cubic meters (106,608 acre-foot) of recoverable groundwater (when saturated) have
been identified;
 nature of the mapped aquifers combined with the assumed increase in pumpage due to drought led to the previous
declines;
 potential for new supplies in bedrock have been identified;
 AEM is the best possible tool to improve understanding of the hydrogeological framework.

Mapping Brackish Water for Desalinization and Industrial Purposes

In April, 2011, Geoscience BC employed SkyTEM to collect approximately 2,400 line km of data over four separate
areas in the Horn River Basin, British Columbia. The survey was flown with the objective of using AEM data and models
to better understand the near surface groundwater resources in areas managed by EOG Resources Canada, Imperial Oil

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Resources, Quicksilver and Stone Mountain Resources. The data are publically available on the Geoscience BC website
http://www.geosciencebc.com/s/Report2012-04.asp.

Results from two of the areas are described below. Figure 11 shows a paleochannel mapped to a depth of
approximately 150 m. This feature was more conductive then the surrounding earth and it was concluded that water in
the channel is most likely brackish. The shape of the buried feature can also lead one to believe that the feature is a buried
river system. For drinking water, brackish water can be treated through reverse osmosis or other desalination processes.
Brackish groundwater is also used for purposes such as cooling water for power generation, aquaculture, and for a variety
of uses in the oil and gas industry such as drilling, enhancing recovery, and hydraulic fracturing.

70 m 100 m 150 m

Figure 11: Data from Horn River Basin survey showing a paleochannel at various depths

Conclusions drawn from this study include:

 Borehole placement can be targeted to collect geological information used to interpret the airborne data and
adjust depth calculations

During the post data acquisition interpretation phase and due to the high quality of the data and resulting resistivity
models, other important discoveries and applications were developed aside from aquifer mapping. These are described
next and in more detail in a paper found here:
http://skytem.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/SkyTEM-Horn-River-Basin.pdf?9c6367.

Artesian well explained – recharge areas identified

In a second area of the Horn River Basin the SkyTEM data resolved an area where the groundwater was under pressure
explaining an artesian well. In Figure12 we see the ground (moderately resistive green/yellow colours) below the clay
cap (conductive orange/red) interpreted to represent water charged paleochannels overlying a thicker clay layer below.
The water filled paleochannel produces natural artesian water flow from the overburden at surface (represented by blue
colours). These blue coloured areas in the very near surface have high resistivity values suggesting aggregate material
(sand and gravel) and these could be areas of aquifer recharge. Also, this study was carried out in an active gas producing
area and in adjacent areas clay caps could trap significant accumulations of shallow gas and present a potential drilling
hazard.
Further interpretation of the SkyTEM data can provide a number of verifiable predictions: prediction for the location
of ground water resources, prediction for the location of artesian water flow from the quaternary, prediction for the
presence (absence) of shallow gas on the property, and a prediction for locations of near surface coarse materials for
engineering applications.

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Figure 12: Layered earth represented in the AEM resistivity model

SALT WATER ENCROACHMENT

In the Pilbara region of Western Australia, a major water management scheme on the fringe of a large hypersaline
lake system (the Fortescue Marsh) has been operating since 2008. The scheme supports the Cloudbreak iron ore mining
operations, and has the Indigenous name of Papa Warringka. A key input for water management decisions on the fringes
of the Fortescue Marsh is hydrogeological drilling data; however, due to the heterogeneity of the aquifer and the salt‐
interface, it has been a challenge to model aquifer processes using borehole data alone. To address this challenge, recently
acquired SkyTEM data has been successfully employed to map saline‐interface processes. For more information on this
study see http://www.swim-site.nl/pdf/swim21/pages_061_064.pdf
In 2014 The National Science Foundation (NSF) and an international team of scientists applied the SkyTEM method
in Antarctica to map the hidden distribution of groundwater and ice in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region to enable
researchers to study microbial ecosystems in sub-glacial environments.

Figure 13: Conceptual saltwater intrusion setting

See http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150428/ncomms7831/full/ncomms7831.html for a paper on this study.

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 Slawek Tulacyk of the University of California at Santa Cruz said “In
a matter of a few weeks, SkyTEM revealed more about deep hydrological
systems in the McMurdo Dry Valleys than what has been gleaned from a
long series of heroic drilling and geophysical campaigns since the 1970s."

Regional scale zones of low subsurface resistivity were detected that

are inconsistent with the high resistivity of glacier ice or dry permafrost in
the region. Figure 14 shows (a) a photograph of the lower 2 km of Taylor
Glacier showing its contact with Lake Bonney. Blood Falls is marked by the
orange staining of ice caused by the release and oxidation of subglacial brine.

Panel (b) is a 3D image of the SkyTEM data showing highly resistive

glacier ice and permafrost with conductive subglacial brine.

Panel (c) is a 3D image of the Taylor Glacier with resistivities above

100m removed to show the spatial extent of conductive brine-saturated
sediments below glacial ice.
DOI: 10.1038/
The results are interpreted as an indication that liquid, with sufficiently
high solute content, exists at temperatures well below freezing and
considered within the range suitable for microbial life. These inferred brines
are widespread within permafrost and extend below glaciers and lakes. One
system emanates from below Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney and a second
system connects the ocean with the eastern 18 km of the valley.
More information on this study can be found at:
http://www.hgg.geo.au.dk/ref_manager/MIKUCKI2015.pdf

Figure 14: Resistivity maps from the Taylor

Glacier and Bonney Basin Survey

SKYTEM PROVIDES A WIDE RANGE OF SUBSURFACE MAPPING SOLUTIONS

Hydrogeology divisions of governments worldwide routinely select SkyTEM technology over all others to map their
water resources. Clients include:

 The United States Geological Survey

 CSIRO (Australia)
 Aqua Geo Frameworks
 BRGM (Geological Survey of France)
 Geoscience BC
 World Bank in India
 Central Groundwater Board India
 Lower Platte South Natural Resource District, Nebraska
 Western Australia for the Department of Agriculture and Food
 The International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
 Stanford University
 Geoscience Australia
 Geological Survey of Sweden
 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
 India for the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) Figure 15: SkyTEM airborne system

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There are many other applications for this technology
SkyTEM was initially developed to map the aquifers of Denmark but other market sectors now use the method for a
multitude of applications. SkyTEM’s ability to deliver accurate high resolution maps of the subsurface from the very near
surface to depths over 500 metres is of tremendous benefit for resource exploration, environmental and engineering
studies. SkyTEM provides solutions for:

• mineral deposits
• soil contamination
• aggregates
• fractures and faults
• landfills
• water depths (bathymetry)
• oil and gas
• site characterization
• landslide investigations
• pre-construction planning

A significant portion of SkyTEM’s projects are in the mineral exploration sector. Clients include BHP Billiton,
Rio Tinto, DeBeers, Anglo American and Boliden. Geotechnical solutions have been provided to the Norwegian
Geotechnical Institute, Golder Associates and First Quantum Minerals,

The superior mapping capabilities of SkyTEM are well documented in papers and case studies authored by our
clients and the scientific community. Please visit our website at www.skytem.com to read some of these papers and for
other information about the SkyTEM method.

A SYSTEM FOR EVERY PURPOSE AND TARGET

To meet the various subsurface mapping needs of all the different markets sectors and clients served SkyTEM offers a
variety of systems that can be customized to each project to maximize the results. Not unlike Lego bricks, also a Danish
invention, SkyTEM is engineered to be quickly reconfigured and rebuilt in the field to adjust for depth of penetration,
near surface resolution and other parameters in order to maximize the value of the delivered data.

A recent SkyTEM development is SkyTEM312FAST. For budgetary reasons alone, large-scale airborne surveys
have traditionally employed fixed-wing aircraft platforms. This, however, has often been at the expense of near-surface
resolution due to the separation between the transmitter and receiver of fixed wing systems and the requirement to fly at
higher altitudes and faster speeds than helicopter-borne systems. As a result ground geophysical surveys are often required
to follow-up the targets detected by fixed wing systems. Helicopter geophysical surveys benefit from the ability to operate
from remote locations with no requirement for a landing strip or airport as there is for fixed wing operations.

In order to address these shortfalls, SkyTEM engineered a new type of system – SkyTEM312FAST.
SkyTEM312FAST is a radical cost efficient departure from all other existing helicopter HTEM systems. The system can be
flown at 150 kilometers per hour close to the ground and is built on an exceptionally rigid and aerodynamic carrier frame
that maintains the low noise levels necessary to provide fine discrimination in the near surface data while retaining the
ability to detect weak conductors at depth. SkyTEM312FAST is able to acquire over 1,000 kilometers of data per day and
is ideal for both mineral exploration and groundwater mapping purposes.
As with all SkyTEM systems, SkyTEM312FAST is highly efficient and robust with little to no downtime, a critical
precondition for rapid survey execution. Each SkyTEM system, regardless of model or application offers the same basic
SkyTEM benefits including:

 Resolution – All SkyTEM systems employ dual-moment technology where a current waveform composed of
low and high dipole-moments is used enabling discrimination between weak geological contrasts in the top
layers concurrently with those at depth.

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  Low moment (LM) mode with low current, high base frequency and fast turn off provides early-time
data and high spatial sampling for shallow imaging.
 High moment (HM) mode with high current and low base frequency provides high quality late-time
data for deep imaging.

 Calibrated - The SkyTEM system is one-time calibrated allowing for direct comparison with ground based or
borehole EM datasets together with complete traceability back to the established TEM reference model. This
also ensures that data from repeat or contiguous SkyTEM surveys can be seamlessly and confidently processed
and combined.

 Rigid carrier frame - All sensors, including the magnetometer, are mounted on the rigid carrier frame and
flown at low altitude ensuring that all measurements are recorded in a fixed geometric setup and as close to the
ground as is achievable from an airborne geophysical platform.

 Magnetic system – The rigid platform’s position and orientation is continuously monitored and together with
its separation from the aircraft means that magnetic data is not being corrected with lower frequency response
fluxgate data in the compensation calculations. Corrections regarding frame geometry are actual and not
approximated. Magnetic data is also used to map geological features such as fractures and faults,

 Robust - The system is very robust and can fly in challenging weather and terrain conditions and without and
onboard operator.

Figure 16: SkyTEM system components

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GLOBAL SCOPE
Our diverse and highly skilled workforce of geophysicist, engineers, technicians and project managers have managed and
completed projects on all seven continents and are experienced in all aspects of geophysical data collection and safe
operations. Our global coverage is complemented via partner companies that are strategically located to ensure availability
of our technology and services.

TECHNOLOGY AND EMERGING NEEDS

The SkyTEM Method is not based on what others have done – and are still doing – rather, we engineered a truly innovative
and unique technology capable of delivering accurate and finely detailed images from the very near surface to depth using
airborne geophysical surveys. We focus on improving your ability to find, manage and develop resources and your ability
to make timely decisions with confidence. We continue to develop the next generation of TDEM sensors, including the
achievement of even greater depths of penetration and increasing our already high S/N ratio, via our on-going investment
in R&D.

ENVIRONMENT AND SAFETY

We take great pride both as a company and as individuals in our contribution to the communities where we live and work.
We operate always with great care for the environment and are proud of the many ways that our employees work to
safeguard it.

OUR WORK
We recognize that the world needs all the water, energy and mineral resources we can develop and we work continuously
to develop ways to map and manage these resources.

Figure 17: SkyTEM HQ in Denmark

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