The Canadian Digital Technology Supercluster will sponsor research to develop a technology platform for low-impact exploration and extraction.

The Earth X-ray for Low-Impact Mining will conduct research on how to better identify density and magnetic anomalies without disrupting the soil.

The consortium aims to create technology which can identify these features up to one kilometre beneath the surface.

Muon tomography company Ideon Technologies is working with Simon Fraser University in British Columbia on this project. Also involved are Dias Geophysical, Microsoft, Fireweed Zinc, and Mitacs.

The technology will "dramatically increase certainty and discovery rates" and minimise cost, time, risk, and environmental impacts, Ideon chief executive Gary Agnew said.

Junior miner Fireweed Zinc will test, validate, and conduct deployments of the technology platform as it is developed. Fireweed is exploring the Macmillan Pass zinc-lead-silver project in Yukon Territory.

The Discovery Platform will contain hardware and software, with new data inversion and integration techniques, advanced AI algorithms, and geostatistical methods. The platform will build detailed 3D profiles of underground anomalies, including metal deposits, air voids, caves and other underground structures.

BHP will also collaborate on building the platform.

"Technology will help us unlock the next generation of resources the world needs to support economic growth and decarbonisation," BHP chief technology executive Laura Tyler said.

A total of C$13.5 million has been invested in the project, of which C$7.9 million has come from industry.

The Digital Technology Supercluster is an initiative launched in November 2018. The supercluster is centred in British Columbia.