Methodology

GeaSpirit maps and scores overlooked, abandoned, historic, care-and-maintenance and tailings mining assets on open satellite and geoscience data, in 16 languages. This page sets out exactly how we build a profile, what each figure means, and what we will and will not claim. Our commitment is simple: verifiable, independent, and never invented.

1. Four principles

Every GeaSpirit profile is built to four standing principles. They are the contract between the data and the reader:

• Open. Baseline profiles are built only from open, citable public data. Every loaded figure carries a primary source link you can check yourself.
• Verifiable. Each field is tagged by where it stands on the Evidence Level scale below, so you always know whether a number is open-data-verified or operator-claimed.
• Independent. GeaSpirit is not a broker, a seller, or an owner of any asset shown. Scores are not influenced by any commercial interest in a transaction. We provide intelligence and prioritization — never investment advice or a guaranteed discovery.
• Honest about gaps. Where open data does not disclose a figure, we say so plainly and never fabricate it. A blank is a blank, not a guess dressed as a fact.

2. Data provenance — where the facts come from

GeaSpirit baseline data is compiled and cross-checked from open, authoritative public sources, including:

• Geological surveys & databases — USGS Mineral Resources (MRDS/USMIN), mindat.org, the British Geological Survey, and national geological surveys.
• Company & regulatory disclosure — NI 43-101 / JORC technical reports, operator filings and published reserve/resource statements.
• Academic & institutional literature — peer-reviewed deposit studies and government reports.
• Geospatial data — open satellite imagery and digital elevation models used for location, footprint and spectral context.

Coordinates are verified against authoritative sources and a country + proximity (haversine) check, then stored in a durable, idempotent corrections ledger. Each enriched asset carries the single best primary source link in its profile, under Source.

Coverage. GeaSpirit focuses on overlooked, abandoned, historic, care-and-maintenance and tailings assets — but the database is not limited to them. It also includes most of the world's major producing mines, carried as benchmarks and geological context (shown as context, never as an "opportunity"). The database is continuously expanded — country by country, plus a dedicated seabed and polar frontier layer — and every asset stores verified coordinates so the engine can re-examine it as new open data appears.

3. The Evidence Level model — verified vs. claimed

This is the heart of the methodology, and what separates GeaSpirit from a listings directory where every figure is an unverifiable seller claim. Every field is positioned on a transparent evidence scale:

Where a figure is not in open records, the profile reads “Not loaded in the current open-data baseline — available for audit in a Professional Intelligence Report. This does not mean no historical production exists.” We turn an honest gap into a defined next step — never into an invented number.

3b. Subsurface Evidence Level (S0–S5)

Alongside the data-provenance levels above, every asset also carries a Subsurface Evidence Level that says how deeply it has been validated below the surface: S0 open-data / satellite, S1 surface spectral + known geology, S2 real public geophysics or geochemistry sampled at the asset, S3 drone survey, S4 field geophysics, S5 drilling / assay. We run two separate tracks: (A) enrich every asset documentally — most stay honestly at S0/S1 — and (B) raise an asset to S2 only by country/region where open public geophysics or geochemistry actually exists (Australia first, then Canada, USA, UK / Fennoscandia, then Sentinel-1 InSAR for abandoned mines). GeaSpirit upgrades an asset to S2 only when public geophysical or geochemical evidence has actually been sampled and attached — where none exists the asset stays S0/S1 and the report says so. S2 is a proof, not a sales target; we never inflate the level.

4. The GeaSpirit Score

The GeaSpirit Score is a 0–100 triage signal. It answers one question: why should this asset earn attention before 10,000 others? It is a prioritization indicator — not a probability of ore, not a valuation, and not a discovery guarantee. It is built from four transparent dimensions, each on a 0–25 scale:

• Signal — satellite spectral mineralisation signal blended with geological favourability.
• Access / Depth — surface reachability and depth, weighted by infrastructure proximity.
• Precision — how tightly the target is bounded in space.
• Certainty — validation strength, reduced by a penalty for any missing evidence.

The four sum to the 0–100 headline, and a LOW / MEDIUM / HIGH confidence band is derived from the certainty dimension. A high headline with a low band means strong apparent signal, weakly validated — read the score together with its band and dimension mix, never in isolation. Inside declared pilot zones (Chile Atacama, Peru, the Zambia/DRC Copperbelt, Kalgoorlie) we publish conservative, leakage-resistant spatial cross-validation metrics; every other asset is labelled an evidence-fusion estimate.

5. The GeaSpirit Engine ("GeaSpirit Old") & where the Score stands today

Behind the platform is the GeaSpirit Engine — the analytical core (referred to internally as "GeaSpirit Old") that reads each site. Without disclosing its proprietary internals, it works by fusing several open signal layers over an asset's exact coordinates: satellite spectral response (mineral-alteration and surface indicators derived from open Sentinel-2 / Landsat imagery), terrain and structure from digital elevation models, regional geological favourability, and infrastructure and access context. These layers are combined into the four transparent dimensions and the 0–100 Score. The specific feature engineering, weightings, calibration and validation models are proprietary and are deliberately not published — what we publish is how to read the result, not the internal machinery.

Where the Score stands today. Across the current dataset the average GeaSpirit Score is about 65 / 100, with the strongest, best-validated assets reaching the low-to-mid 80s (e.g. Chuquicamata ≈ 83, the Kalgoorlie Super Pit ≈ 83, Escondida ≈ 80). That world-class producers rank at the very top is itself a sign the scoring is coherent. The four dimensions currently average roughly Signal 19/25, Access 14/25, Precision 18/25, Certainty 13/25. We are actively working to raise these — especially Certainty and Access — by widening sourced evidence, tightening coordinates and extending validation, with the standing goal of pushing each score toward its full, verified potential.

Calibration successes so far. World-class producers rank at the top as expected; verified second-chance districts (e.g. Rodalquilar, Cerro Rico, the Iberian Pyrite Belt, Sukari) score and locate correctly on the map; and a dedicated coordinate-verification pass moved 150+ visible assets onto their true positions, each traceable to an authoritative source. Every improvement is measurable and versioned — the Score is a living number, not a one-off guess.

6. On-chain provenance

GeaSpirit is part of the SOST ecosystem, and uses the chain for one specific, honest purpose: tamper-evident provenance. Asset records, source documents and score history can be hashed (SHA-256) and anchored on-chain with a timestamp — the document itself stays private; only its fingerprint is written. This makes a record’s existence and integrity at a point in time independently verifiable, and it converts the universal weakness of mining databases — stale, unaccountable data — into dated, immutable provenance.

We put trust on-chain, never value or ownership. GeaSpirit issues no asset token, holds no custody of funds, and makes no security offering. The chain certifies that a record existed and was not altered — not that any underlying claim is true.

7. Limitations

• Remote sensing and open data screen opportunity; only drilling confirms a deposit.
• Scores are prioritization indicators, not probabilities of economic mineralisation, and not valuations.
• Coordinates and facts are from open public sources and are approximate; GeaSpirit does not verify ownership, title or licence status.
• “Verified” means matched to an open public source — not a physical audit or a legal warranty.
• GeaSpirit provides intelligence and prioritization, not investment, legal or technical advice.