About us

Earth Observation specialists of CSIRO Mineral Resources’ Discovery Program work across a large range of cross-disciplinary research projects, developing spectral sensing solutions for the mineral resources sector.

Together with geological surveys, industry and universities, we evaluate multispectral and hyperspectral, satellite and airborne data sets for regolith landform classification, mineral footprints mapping, mineral systems analysis, mine-site monitoring and dust mapping.

Our strong background in mineralogy, geochemistry and geophysics enables us to work on a wide range of commodities and to identify the right combination of EO and other geoscience data to investigate the mineral system of interest.

Quality control of sensors, ground validation and integration of EO imagery with field and laboratory geoscience data helps us to create realistic products for the mineral resources sector.

Our team:

Fariba Kohan Pour

  • Fariba is a geologist with expertise in applying multi-scale interdisciplinary geological data to understand mineral systems components. During her PhD at The University of Western Australia (UWA), she applied a multi-disciplinary, multi-scale approach including geodynamic numerical modelling, geophysical interpretation, geochronology/isotope analysis to understand gold and nickel mineral systems components in the Halls Creek Orogen of Western Australia and integrate all obtained knowledge and geological datasets in GIS-based prospectivity modelling to highlight the prospective zones. Following that, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at UWA in the MRIWA and Linkage projects, where she was involved with core logging, sampling, petrophysical measurements, geophysical data interpretation, and mainly focused on geochronology/isotope studies to establish the provenance of the poorly-exposed Neoproterozoic Yeneena Basin in Paterson Orogen. Currently, she is working as a mineral systems geologist at CSIRO, interested in integrating hyperspectral core data and airborne/satellite data with other geoscience datasets to map the mineral systems components at different scales.

Heta Lampinen

  • Heta works with a wide range of Earth observation data, including hyperspectral, geochemical and geophysical survey data to facilitate geological, structural and mineral mapping across multiple scales on the surface and subsurface. Heta’s technical skills include operating hyperspectral core and field sensors, advanced hyperspectral data processing and integration with complimentary geoscience data, various microscopy techniques (optical, SEM, XRF, XRD), structural geology and geotechnical rock classification (e.g. Q-system). Further, Heta is also skilled in processing mineral product maps from airborne and satellite earth observation data cubes (e.g. HyMap and PRISMA) and in interpreting them using data from the ground samples, background geology and mineral systems concepts.

Ian Lau

  • Dr Ian C Lau is a Senior Experimental Scientist with a background in hyperspectral remote sensing, geophysical imagery, spectroradiometer instrumentation and regolith geology. Ian works with airborne, spaceborne and proximal spectral data to extract mineralogical and environmental information. Ian is part of the Australian aerosol robotic observation network (AERONET) and involved in setting up an Australian Radiometic Calibration Network (RadCalNet) site at the Pinnacles, Western Australia, which has been used for validation of Landsat, Sentinel 2, WorldView, FASat-C, DESIS, PRISMA,and EnMap.

Carsten Laukamp

  • Dr Carsten Laukamp is a Principal Research Scientist, with a strong background in mineralogy and economic geology. Carsten likes to unravel the electronic and vibrational modes, which can be observed in reflectance spectra collected from the continental to microscopic scale. For many years, Carsten has enjoyed using airborne hyperspectral (e.g. HyMap) and satellite multispectral (e.g. ASTER, WorldView3) imagery for regolith landform classification and mapping alteration mineral footprints associated with a wide range of ore deposit styles. Evaluating the recently launched satellite hyperspectral systems (e.g. PRISMA, DESIS) for mineral characterisation and critical metals exploration is Carsten’s latest passion.

Jessica Stromberg

  • Dr Jess Stromberg is a Senior Research Scientist and Team Leader of the Mineral Footprints team. She is a geoscientist with a background in ore deposit geochemistry, spectral techniques, and in the minerals industry. In the spectral sensing space, Jess works largely at the drill core scale with spectral mineralogy data from HyLogger and field-based spectrometers, and in knowledge transfer through delivery of workshops on the applications of hyperspectral mineralogy as a part of the AuScope NVCL. Jess works across a range of applied research and technology development projects and is broadly interested in improving the workflows in which we collect and integrate spectral datasets from the X-ray to far-infrared.

Jo Miles

  • Dr Jo Miles is a geologist and researcher with a background in volcanic-hydrothermal systems. During her PhD, Jo integrated hyperspectral remotely sensed alteration maps with isotopic systems to understand how volcanism and mineralisation forms and evolves in time and space. Afterwards, Jo worked as a Senior Exploration Geologist on the Per Geijer IOA-REE project in Arctic Sweden. She was actively involved with core logging and lithogeochemistry to resolve the wider volcano-sedimentary stratigraphy and controls on mineralisation, often collaborating with researchers to provide the geological context for beneficiation studies. Currently, Jo is a Research Scientist at CSIRO, and utilises a multi-method approach to advance the spectral science of mineral systems to aid discovery.

Morgan Williams

  • Dr. Morgan Williams is a geochemist, data scientist and research software engineer within CSIRO Mineral Resources’ Geoscience Analytics team. He has a background in isotope geochemistry and metamorphic petrology. Morgan works on a range of projects using geochemical, mineralogical, spectral and spatial data – from the microscale up to national-scale Earth Observation data. He integrates domain knowledge with new approaches and tools, and spends a large fraction of his time working on developing efficient software for geoscientists.