The best minds in mining take on the industry’s most meaningful challenges in orebody knowledge, mining operations, and data optimization
Vancouver, CANADA (January 16, 2025) – Canadian subsurface intelligence leader Ideon Technologies announces the launch of the Ideon Council of Subsurface Experts (ICSE) to inform a much-needed quantum step forward in technology for the industry. The Council brings together seasoned mining experts from across the mining value chain to tackle the question: If we could achieve perfect knowledge of the subsurface, how would mining change? The pursuit of an answer will help shape Ideon’s ambitious research and product development roadmap – which includes technologies already being commercialized, technologies in development, and new ones yet to be conceived.
One of the greatest challenges facing the mining sector is how to accelerate production and delivery of critical metals in support of the energy transition and global decarbonization – it can take decades to unlock subsurface resources. Beyond permitting, regulatory compliance, and securing social license, the most time-consuming aspect of the process is painstakingly gathering sufficient orebody knowledge to reduce geological uncertainty; to the point where the next phase of investment can be made.
Ideon delivers high-resolution subsurface intelligence that helps the world’s most progressive mining companies identify, map, characterize, and monitor mineral deposits, subsurface voids, and other geologic features. This allows them to save time, optimize productivity and returns, reduce geotechnical risk, and minimize environmental impact across the full mine life cycle – from exploration and resource modeling to mine planning and operations, through to reclamation, aftercare, and even re-mining. Leveraging the hundreds of years of wisdom and experience brought together through this Council, Ideon will support the mining industry in improving the speed and cost of reducing subsurface uncertainty to inform investment and operating decisions.
An influential and broadly networked collective, Council experts will help Ideon address the industry’s most pressing subsurface challenges to deliver high-value solutions to customers. They inform the evolution of Ideon’s REVEAL™ Platform roadmap, which integrates a unique suite of proprietary hardware, software, AI-powered services, and multi-physics fusion techniques to create high-resolution, dynamic Earth models. The Council will leverage the insights generated through Ideon’s extensive academic partnership network, which includes groups like Stanford University’s Mineral-X program; the Mineral Deposit Research Unit (MDRU), Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining (BRIMM), International Caving Research Network (ICaRN), and Geophysical Inversion Facility (GIF) at the University of British Columbia; the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute (CANSSI) and 4D Labs institute at Simon Fraser University; and the Centre for Computational Geostatistics (CCG) at the University of Alberta, among others.
Chaired by Alan Bye and guided by Ideon CTO and co-founder Doug Schouten, the inaugural Council brings world-class know-how in geophysics, geology, resource modelling, mining engineering, caving, and intellectual property strategy:
Dr. Alan Bye, PhD
Chair, Ideon Council of Subsurface Experts
Alan is a co-founder and director of Imvelo Pty Ltd., an Australian company leading a technology-driven transformation of the mining industry. With more than 20 years of experience in operational and strategic mining roles, Alan served as VP, Technology at BHP from 2015-19, responsible for executing major innovation programs, designing future mining operations, establishing strategic partnerships, and implementing digital and extractive technologies across commodity value chains. He also founded the Cooperative Research Centre for Optimizing Resource Extraction (CRC ORE) and held senior operational positions at Anglo American. Alan holds a PhD in mining engineering and a BSc in geology.
Lucy Potter
General Manager, Technical – Minerals, Rio Tinto
Lucy is an accomplished mining executive with more than 20 years working with major and mid-tier public mining and minerals companies. She has deep technical knowledge in mineral exploration and resource estimation for a number of commodities. She co-founded an international technical services team responsible for life-of-mine strategy, capital development projects, and resource replenishment, and is a trusted strategic advisor on technology innovation and oversight of mine digital transformation projects. In her current role, Lucy focuses on assurance for major hazards such as mine waste and process safety. Lucy has completed graduate studies in mining law, finance, and sustainability, as well as undergraduate studies in education and geology.
Albert Chong
Mining Industry Geologist
Albert’s career experience in geology spans more than 35 years, including exploration, development, mining, mineral resource estimation, consulting and mining finance on various metallic mineral deposit types and commodities. While working with Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. for more than a decade, he honed his skills in identifying top-tier mineral exploration/mining projects while actively contributing towards the technical due diligence supporting accretive, precious metal streaming agreements worth more than USD 8B. Albert completed a graduate degree in exploration geoscience and an undergraduate degree in geology.
Dr. Tony Diering, PhD
International Caving Expert
A world-renowned expert in cave mining, Tony is a pioneer of innovative, block and sub-level caving technologies and has spent time working with most of the world’s underground mines. He brings more than 35 years of experience in mining modelling and software, including years with SRK Consulting and Gemcom Software (subsequently Dassault Systemes). Currently with MaxGT Consulting, he is an International Mining Technology Hall of Fame inductee. Tony earned his PhD in mining.
Dr. Arthur Maddever, PhD
Physicist and sensor expert
Arthur spent 30 years at mining major BHP as a research scientist and innovator, developing geo-sensors for exploration and in-mine applications in diverse settings, before branching out as a consultant to the industry in his field. He contributed directly to the development and implementation of several world-first sensors based on gravity gradiometry, electromagnetics, PFTNA (pulsed fast thermal neutron activation), XRTS (x-ray transmission spectroscopy), and XRF (x-ray fluorescence). Arthur earned his PhD in physics.
Lance Follet, JD
Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development & Chief Legal Officer, Westport Fuel Systems
Lance oversees corporate development, legal, government relations, strategy and intellectual property at Westport, and brings an extensive background in market development, intellectual property protection and licensing, mergers and acquisitions, and structuring and negotiating international technology deals in the energy, high-tech, alternative energy, and automotive space. Lance is a registered patent agent and earlier in his career, he practiced patent litigation at a Canadian national law firm and also had a successful career as an acquisition geophysicist based in and working throughout Southeast Asia. Lance earned his undergraduate degree in geophysics, followed by his Juris Doctor (JD).
“The Ideon Council of Subsurface Experts provides Ideon with expert guidance as we solve the underlying problem of geological uncertainty, which impedes growth, drives costs, and slows time to market for mining companies around the world,” said Doug Schouten, CTO & co-founder of Ideon Technologies. “Their contribution of technical wisdom, industry perspective, and hands-on experience are invaluable as we advance the world’s only remote sensing technology that provides the imaging resolution needed to precisely delineate subsurface features, at depth and in the complex operational environment of active mine sites. Working together, we are reducing geological uncertainty and giving mining companies greater confidence to move earlier, faster, and with less downstream risk.”
About Ideon Technologies
Ideon Technologies uses the energy from supernova explosions to image deep beneath the Earth’s surface. A spin-off from TRIUMF (Canada’s particle physics lab), Ideon is a world pioneer in cosmic-ray muon tomography. Ideon has developed a subsurface intelligence platform that integrates proprietary detectors, imaging systems, inversion technologies, and artificial intelligence to provide x-ray-like visibility underground. By transforming muon data into reliable 3D density maps, Ideon helps geologists identify, map, characterize, and monitor mineral deposits with confidence. This reduces risk and cost of traditional methods, while saving time, optimizing return, and minimizing environmental impact across the mining value chain. In turn, this is helping accelerate the world’s transition to low-impact mining and transform how companies recover the critical minerals required to power the global shift to clean energy – improving peoples’ lives and enhancing economic prosperity.