Ma’aden Signs MoU with Fleet Space & Tahreez to Unlock KSA’s Mineral Potential

Ma’aden Signs MoU with Fleet Space & Tahreez to Unlock KSA’s Mineral Potential 

Image credit: Wikipedia Commons

Fleet Space, Australia’s leading space exploration company, and Tahreez, a visionary smart solutions provider and subsidiary of Alturki Holding, announced the signing of an MoU outlining a partnership with the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden). The agreement will help provide the latest breakthroughs in space, multiphysics, and AI drill targeting services to accelerate discovery and development of mineral resources in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This will enable Ma’aden to deploy Fleet Space’s vertically integrated technology stack, ExoSphere, to drive real-time 3D subsurface imaging at scale - a vital capability needed to unlock the exploration potential of the Arabian Shield and drive progress toward Vision 2030.

“Integrating leading-edge, world-class exploration technologies is a central pillar to Ma’aden’s ambitious growth strategy,” said Bob Wilt, CEO of Ma’aden. “This collaboration will accelerate our path to discovery, and strengthen the Kingdom’s position as a mining innovation leader and a foundational partner for the global mineral value chain.”

Through a recently formed joint venture between Tahreez and Fleet Space, a regional task force will be created by the joint venture to support the rapid deployment of ExoSphere across Ma’aden’s projects and opportunity zones in the Middle East to identify potential targets for future development. Used by global mining leaders like Rio Tinto, Barrick, Gold Fields, and AngloGold Ashanti to deliver 3D imaging of mineral systems up to 7km in depth, ExoSphere enhances data-driven exploration with near-zero environmental impact, furthering ESG and sustainability principles for customers worldwide. 

“This collaboration reflects a force multiplier for the Kingdom’s dynamic mining sector and another bold stride for Vision 2030,” said Francesco Fidicaro, Managing Director of Tahreez. “By combining the latest advances in AI and space with Ma’aden’s sector leadership, this powerful new initiative reinforces KSA on the forefront of the global mining value chain and outlines a potential path to accelerate sovereign mineral discovery.”

For the innovations in real-time exploration and sustainable mining practices unlocked by Fleet Space’s end-to-end exploration platform - ExoSphere - the company recently closed a USD$100M Series D funding round with a valuation of USD$525M, led by Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage venture and growth investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The new investment will be used to expand the capabilities of ExoSphere, which integrates Fleet Space’s satellites in LEO, smart sensors, and AI to streamline the acquisition, processing, and integration of exploration datasets, delivering high-quality targeting insights in days while minimising environmental impact. ​Fleet Space launched its most advanced exploration satellites - Centauri 7 & Centauri 8 - on SpaceX's Transporter 12 mission this week, building its satellite capacity to support an expansion of ExoSphere's capabilities for customers worldwide.

SpaceX Transporter 12 Launch (Image credit: SpaceX)

“As an end-to-end solution designed to complement modern mining operations, ExoSphere enables the most ambitious exploration strategies by unlocking faster, more precise targeting decisions at scale in the world’s harshest exploration conditions,” said Co-Founder & CEO of Fleet Space, Flavia Tata Nardini. “Real-time 3D subsurface data acquisition, processing, and AI-powered insights in a single workflow represents a paradigm shift in the future of mining - providing a platform to identify high-quality targets in days while maximising the ROI of every drilling campaign.”

For the exploration results and sustainability benefits delivered in partnership with the global mining industry, Fleet Space was recently recognized as the winner of the Innovation and Business Expansion categories at the Mining Technology Excellence Awards 2024 in addition to receiving the Climate Technology Impact Award at the Banksia Foundation’s 35th National Sustainability Awards. In parallel, Fleet Space continues to advance innovation in off-world exploration technologies with the lunar variant of ExoSphere - SPIDER - set for deployment on the Moon in 2026, to further humanity’s understanding of the structure and composition of the lunar regolith.