Why a broader range of mathematical strategies is needed to better enable discovery

The goal of exploration geophysics is to infer the nature of buried structure and, in particular, generate drill targets that lead to a mineral deposit discovery or reserve delineation. As a profession, we aim to turn geophysical data into geological information. Most geophysical techniques enable inferences to be made from airborne, ground-based or bore-hole data through a deterministic process whereby a single model ‘answer’ is generated. Well-founded algorithms include uncertainty estimates for different parameters in the model and/or some form of model validation. This approach has been successful to date, and we advocate the continued use of deterministic algorithms.