Research scientist
CSIRO Mineral Resources, Perth Australia
Walid Salama is a senior research geoscientist and the leader of the Minerals and water team at CSIRO Mineral Resources in Perth, Western Australia. He joined CSIRO as a postdoc fellow in 2012. He received his PhD degree from Cairo University in Egypt in 2010. In 2007, he received a PhD fellowship from the German Exchange Academic Service (DAAD) and Joined the DFG-funded interdisciplinary research training group “Alteration and element mobility at the microbe-mineral interface”) at Friedrich-Schiller university in Jena. In CSIRO, he led and involved in 20 research projects for Au, base metals and Ni-Co exploration in weathered and covered terrains in Australia and Africa. His main objective is to introduce cost-effective methods for exploration through cover.
The Geoscience vision for future exploration and resource extraction in the digitalisation era
The minerals resources industry faces unique challenges in locating ore bodies. CSIRO is embracing digital technology to improve data collection and to make surveying the most isolated areas more efficient, easier, cheaper, and safer. Two digital tools – mobile apps and drones – could transform minerals exploration in Australia and around the world. One of these tools is the Field Acquired Information Management Systems mobile field app (FAIMS). FAIMS improves data quality, accuracy, and consistency by reducing human error during recording and transcribing. It even produces barcodes to stick onto sample bags, so researchers don’t need to write IDs and other details on them. The app automatically uploads data onto a portable server, which increases data security and makes it easy for researchers to work in very remote locations because they don’t need Wi-Fi or phone networks. CSIRO also sees drones as promising exploration tools as they allow us to cover relatively large areas and provide data at a much higher resolution than aircraft do.