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FEARGAL MURPHY AND ROWAN VERNON OF IGS LTD PRESENTING DURING THE GEOMIN 2025 CONFERENCE IN SAUDI ARABIA
Feargal Murphy and Rowan Vernon each presented updates on IGS’s work on the Saudi Geological Survey Regional Geoscience Program (RGP) at GEOMIN 2025 on the 13th and 14th October 2025.
The conference brought together 500 attendees and over 100 presentations. There were many presentations showcasing the fantastic geophysical and geochemical datasets released on the National Geoscience Portal (NGD).
Rowan presented updates on the Geological Mapping of the Arabian Shield (GMAS) project; supporting the discovery of New Mineral Resources. The initial products of the work are expected for release on the NGD in early 2026.
Feargal’s presentation covered examples of how the Phase 1 RGP airborne geophysics (magnetic and radiometric data) can be used for exploration with a focus on using open-source tools for data visualisation and enhancement.
Feargal and Rowan presenting at GEOMIN 2025 in Saudi Arabia
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IGS and Partner PGW Perform Geophysical Data QA/QC in Nigeria and India
Recently, Dr. Feargal Murphy and IGS partner PGW performed QA/QC on geophysical data in Nigeria. The project for Mindiver (Mineral Sector Support For Economic Diversification) is coming to a close and IGS (with partners PGW) has performed QA/QC of the final acquisition and interpretation products.
The acquisition was completed this week and a total of 1.56 million line km of magnetic gradiometry and radiometric data was acquired by Xcalibur since the project commenced in late 2021.
On another ongoing project, IGS in collaboration with IDPEX partners PGW and Datacode, have begun QA/QC of a magnetic/radiometric fixed wing survey flown by McPhar/Xcalibur for the Geological Survey of India in the state of Gujarat. This latest survey covers block 15 of the GSI’s ongoing national airborne geophysics acquisition program.
By Dr. Feargal Murphy – Principal Geophysicist
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News
IGS Attends PDAC 2024 in Toronto
It was great to attend PDAC from the 3rd – 6th March 2024 in Toronto. The event proved again to be a success for IGS in meeting clients and establishing discussions on some exciting new opportunities for the company.
PDAC (Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada) is the World’s Premier Mineral Exploration & Mining Convention. It is the leading event for people, companies and organizations connected to mineral exploration.
By Dr. Peter Zawada – Managing Director
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News
IGS Providing Technical Support to the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry in Mongolia
Ash Johnson and Mark Parker from IGS recently provided assistance to the Ministry of Mining and Heavy Industry, Mongolia to prepare the technical specifications for a new multi-parameter airborne geophysical survey over a large section of South-Central Mongolia. The aim of the project is to identify areas with the potential to host critical mineral deposits. IGS were kindly supported by the British Embassy, Mongolia under the leadership of HM Ambassador Fiona Blyth. Full details of the tender can be found at https://lnkd.in/ewzUX-dm
From L-R Ulzii Nyamlkhagva, Bayarkhangai Khishig-ochir, Ash Johnson, Uyanga Bold (Deputy Minister), Mark Parker, Sanchigdorj Khurelbaatar.
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IGS: TECHNICAL PARTNER TO THE SAUDI GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
IGS (International Geoscience Services) Ltd is a UK based, specialist consultancy supporting and promoting the mineral resource sector by collecting, quality control, defining technical specifications, compilation, value adding, interpreting and serving of geodata.
THE MINERAL PROMOTION SERVICES IGS PROVIDES
1 – National Mapping Programmes
IGS implements large geological, geochemical and geophysical mapping programmes used by governments and industry to support and stimulate mineral exploration. It supervises, monitors and signs-off on the quality of geological and geochemical mapping and airborne geophysical data.
2 – Institutional Strengthening
IGS provides a wealth of strategic management knowledge and experience to assist national geological survey organisations to transform and realign their strategic objectives and operations.
3 – Geodata Management
IGS are experts in the collection, interpretation, management, and serving of geodata typically held by geoscience survey organisations e.g., processing and interpreting geophysical data, setting up geoportals, compiling prospectivity maps and integrating geological map data on GIS platforms.
4 – Training and Capacity Building
IGS is experienced in delivering training and capacity building projects around the world in a variety of geoscientific disciplines.
5 – Target Generation
We help to identify prospective areas for mineralisation using innovative approaches by applying semantically driven technology and AI technologies for regions, countries or discrete geological terranes.
Project experience
IGS is internationally renowned for its supervision and quality control of large geodata acquisition programmes commissioned by governments, worldwide – funded by the World Bank, national governments and other agencies. IGS is the lead party as Technical Partner to the Saudi Geological Survey for the surveying of the Arabian Shield in Saudi Arabia (600 000 km2). This multi-year project provides quality control of contractors for the geological mapping, geochemical sampling programme, airborne geophysical survey, upgrading the National Geodatabase and the National Core Library of contractors.
For more information please contact us at:
Email: Enquiries@igsint.com
Tel: +44 (0) 7535 206474
News
IGS exhibiting in INDABA 5-8 February 2024 in Cape Town , South Africa
A very successful exhibition at Indaba 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. It has been great to meet a range of our partners and clients across the Africa region and beyond, and we look forward to engaging in many more successful projects across the region.
Thanks to the UK Department of Business and Trade Africa team for hosting us on the UK pavilion.
By Dr. Peter Zawada – Managing Director
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News
Detailed Geological Mapping of the Arabian Shield
Field work under the (GMAS) project began on 05 February 2024 north-west of Ar Ruwaidhah on map sheet 4423-4 Jabal Damkh. The objective of the project is to generate a seamless and homogeneous geological map on a scale of 1:100 000 for the entire Arabian Shield (c. 650,000 km²).
IGS(International Geoscience Services)limited is involved in this very extensive geological mapping programme as Lead Technical Partner (TP) of the contracting authority, the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS). The most important task is the supervision of the contractor, the China Geological Survey (CGS).A first set of 24 geological maps (out of a total of 271 map sheets) is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
By Dr. Christoph J. Dobmeier (EurGeol)– Principal Geologist
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News
Completion of field work on the High-Resolution Geochemical Survey of the Arabian Shield (GSAS) project
The field work of the High-Resolution Geochemical Survey of the Arabian Shield (GSAS) project which covers the entire Arabian Shield (c. 600,000 km²), commissioned by the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS) with International Geoscience Services (IGS) as Lead Technical Partners (TPs), and conducted by the Chinese Geological Survey (CGS) including analyses of 76 elements for each sample have been completed successfully.
More than 88,000 stream sediment samples were successfully collected with no incident or LTI (Loss Time Injury) recorded since March 2022. This is a great achievement for the team (SGS-CGS-TP) as well as IGS (Lead Technical Partners). As part of celebration for this milestone achievement and successful completion of the field sampling.
Thanks to the Technical Partners (TPs) for joining hands with the Management of SGS led by His Excellency, Eng. Abdullah Al-Shamrani (Chief Executive Officer/President of SGS) and the Management of China Geological Survey (CGS) for collecting the samples.
By Dr. Reik Degler – Project Geologist
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News
IDPeX and MSA meet in Riyadh to discuss our project in India
IDPeX and MSA have been working together on a project for OMC (Odisha Mining Corporation Limited) to provide exploration related support and technical assistance for mining blocks in Odisha, to be auctioned by the State Government.
IDPeX is an Indian registererd consultancy that brings together the resources of IGS, PGW and Datacode. MSA is the contractual lead on the project and brings its valuable experience in mineral exploration. Because we all attended the Future Minerals Forum 24, in Riyadh, we took the opportunity to meet after FMF 24 to discuss progress on the project and to agree on further planning. A successful meeting and many thanks to all who attended.
By Dr. Peter Zawada – Managing Director
(For more information please contact us at enquiries@igsint.com)
News
IGS Attends the Future Minerals Forum 24, Riyadh
IGS attended the Future Minerals Forum 24 (FMF 24), in Riyadh (9-11 January 2024). IGS had its own stand and was attended by Garth Earls, Peter Zawada, Frik Hartzer and Feargal Murphy of IGS. FMF 24 was a great success for us and enabled the company to establish its position as an important geoscientific consultancy operating in the Kingdom.
It was a pleasure and honour to meet so many interested colleagues from the Kingdom and be part of an ever growing, developing and dynamic mineral sector. Our colleagues from Planetary AI also attended and had valuable discussions on the mineral prospectivity software, Xplore.
It was once again a pleasure to host Geotech Arabia, our partner for the Technical Partner project with the Saudi Geological Survey. IGS sees FMF 24 as an important global and regional event that serves the mineral sector, which we expect to grow from strength to strength, and accordingly, we plan to exhibit and attend FMF 25, next year.
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IGS Stand at FMF24
From left: Gavin Berkenheger & Rory Somerset of Planetary AI; Garth Earls, Feargal Murphy, Peter Zawada & Frik Hartzer of IGS
By Dr. Peter Zawada – Managing Director
(For more information please contact us at enquiries@igsint.com)
News
Contractor Presents Mobile Mapping Application for Geological Mapping Project of the Arabian Shield
As part of the preparation for the mobile digital mapping of the Arabia Shield, the contractor (China Geological Survey) presented a beta version of its self-developed mobile application. At a two-day workshop in Jeddah, geologists from the Saudi Geological Service (SGS) and IGS geologists as Technical Partner of SGS were able to get an introduction of how the software can be used in the field. Based on experiences made in the field and input by SGS and TP, the contractor aims to optimize on the mobile mapping application.
Geological Mapping of the Arabian Shield – Contractor presents Mobile Mapping Application
By Dr. Reik Degler – Project Geologist
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News
Workshop on high-resolution Geochemical Survey of the Arabian Shield (GSAS) using stream sediment and heavy mineral concentrate samples
Dr Esko Korkiakoski, the new IGS Team Leader for the Geochemical Survey of Arabian Shield (GSAS) gave the opening presentation at a recent two day open session workshop held at Swissôtel Living Jeddah Hotel on 17-18 of September 2023. He outlined the current status and objectives of the survey. During the session of the workshop, China Geological Survey (CGS) (the technical operator of the field sampling, analytical work and map production) presented about 90,000 stream sediment samples.
IGS Ltd and Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) are technical partners to Saudi Geological Survey (SGS). They are in charge of the quality control of the geochemical survey, giving support and advice in all aspects related to the project implementation, and approval of the final products.
By Dr. Esko Korkiakoski (IGS Ltd) – Technical Partner team leader for the SGS Geochemical Survey of Arabian Shield (GSAS)
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Dr Feargal Murphy presentation to experts from Arabian Shield Stratigraphic Commission
Dr Feargal Murphy recently presented initial results from SGS RGP airborne geophysics phase 1 (mag/rad) to experts from Arabian Shield Stratigraphic Commission (ASSC) group. The ASSC is a panel of international experts in Neoproterozoic geology who are developing an updated lithostratigraphy for the upcoming Arabian Shield mapping programme. The RGP phase 1 data is being acquired for SGS by Sander Geophysics Ltd and Xcalibur Multiphysics. IGS and colleagues from Patterson Grant and Watson (PGW) are technical advisors for the RGP geophysics programmes. IGS and GTK are technical partner for the RGP programme.
By Dr. Feargal Murphy – principal geophysicist
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