Fleet Space partners with Aussie startups and US unis for mineral exploration tech

The news: Fleet Space, Australia's leading space exploration company, has announced partnerships with Australian innovators mDetect, Nomad Atomics, and DeteQt to advance mineral exploration technology through AI-powered systems. The company is expanding its ExoSphere platform capabilities through collaborations with these frontier tech startups and academic institutions including Stanford's Mineral-X and MIT's Space Exploration Initiative.

The numbers: Fleet Space has secured contracts with major mining companies including Rio Tinto, Barrick, BHP and Gold Fields. Maaden will deploy ExoSphere across 12,000 square kilometres of the Arabian Shield to develop Saudi Arabia's $2.5 trillion mineral portfolio. The company recently completed a $US100 million ($157 million) Series D funding round.

The context: Global demand for minerals required in renewable energy and advanced technology manufacturing has increased significantly. The mining industry is adopting new exploration tools including satellites, real-time multiphysics ground sensors, and AI to improve discovery rates. Fleet Space recently acquired HiSeis, a provider of active seismic solutions for hard rock mineral exploration, and plans to deploy its ExoSphere technology on the Moon in late 2026.

What they said: "For the global mining industry to achieve its potential as an industry leader in exploration data-intelligence, we must build the deep technologies and infrastructure that integrate breakthrough sensing modalities into a unified system," said Fleet Space chief executive and co-founder Flavia Tata Nardini.