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Mark Arundell

Mark Arundell

Principal Geologist at IMEx Consulting, geochemical consultant specializing in mineral exploration with 30+ years of experience.

Jul 21, 2026

16:02
So tell us more.
16:05
Okay.
16:06
So I suppose the inspiration for this goes back possibly about 10 years, but I was reminded by it recently by, I think it was a comment that someone made on LinkedIn from a BHP presentation that showed the depth to discovery of a number of copper deposits over the last, say, 20 odd, 30 odd years, and it's a real, uh, almost like a waterfall in some ways that the depth of the deposit is getting greater.
16:37
And this is something I suppose I looked at 10 years ago and actually came to the conclusion that it's necessarily the case that we were showing these great big ore bodies being found at great depth, but it doesn't necessarily match what the data is actually telling us.
16:55
So I gave a talk in 2019 at a Australian Institute of Geoscientists, a seminar, and yeah, had quite a good amount of feedback, both positive and negative about the talk.
17:08
So the, the, uh, the idea of looking deep is, I suppose, nothing new.
17:14
It's probably been around 10 to 15, perhaps 20 odd years, and it's not just something confined to Australia.

40 MINS LATER

57:20
So if the industry fully embraced the idea behind the fallacy of the deep or the opportunity in the shallow, what do you think would change most about the way in which exploration programs are being designed? Would we spend less money in drilling, or would we simply think more carefully before we do it?

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