Finding what lies beneath: Mosayeb Khademi’s data-driven approach to mineral exploration

At face value, there may not be many immediate similarities between a round of golf and determining areas most likely to hold high-value mineral deposits.

But spend a little time with Mosayeb Khademi, and it becomes clear that patience, strategy and a commitment to continuous improvement are character traits necessary for success in both areas.

Whether he’s helping his son build confidence through sport on the weekend, navigating a challenging golf course, or developing new approaches to mineral exploration, Mosayeb is motivated by a simple question: how can we make better decisions with the information available?

That question has shaped a career spanning geoscience, data analysis and mineral exploration, and ultimately led him to MinEx CRC, where as a PhD student, he pursued research focused on one of Australia’s biggest exploration challenges: finding the next generation of mineral deposits hidden beneath cover.

Mosayeb’s natural curiosity and commitment to improvement underpin work focused on helping discover Australia’s future mineral resources.

Caption: Mosayeb at his 2025 University of South Australia graduation.

Connecting geology and mineral exploration through data

Mosayeb’s work is focused on leveraging vast amounts of data to reduce large exploration search areas down to smaller, high-priority targets.

As Australia’s minerals industry searches deeper beneath the surface for the resources needed to support future economic growth and the energy transition, reducing uncertainty has become more important than ever. For Mosayeb, that challenge is both scientific and practical.

“The easy discoveries have largely been made, and future discoveries will increasingly come from undercover where exploration is more expensive and uncertain,” Mosayeb says.

In 2025, Mosayeb completed his PhD with MinEx CRC, during which he developed a quantitative method to measure and communicate the value of exploration data and their relative contribution to mineral deposit discovery.

“My research focused on one of the big challenges in mineral exploration: how to make better decisions when the deposits we are looking for are increasingly buried and harder to detect directly,” Mosayeb says.

“In simple terms, I was looking at how we can use geological knowledge and different datasets to reduce a very large search area down to smaller and higher-priority areas for exploration.”

Signs of Mosayeb’s fascination with geology were evident from an early age, and that natural curiosity has remained a constant throughout his career.

“Growing up, I was always fascinated by landscapes and mountains. Fast forward, my career has been driven by a curiosity about how exploration for resources works and how we can make better exploration decisions,” Mosayeb says.

As exploration has moved into deeper and more complex environments, that curiosity evolved into a passion for understanding how geological, geophysical and geochemical datasets can be combined to reveal what lies beneath the Earth’s surface.

“I enjoy working at the intersection of geology, data and mineral systems. Every dataset tells part of the geological story and one of the most rewarding parts of my work is bringing those pieces together to better understand where mineral systems are likely to occur and reduce the uncertainty around exploration.”

Caption: Mosayeb examining drill core at a Matsa Resources core shed.

Benefiting from collaboration

The collaborative model that underpins MinEx CRC was a significant drawcard for Mosayeb when choosing where to direct his research and career.

For Mosayeb, one of MinEx CRC’s greatest strengths is its ability to bring together people who view the same challenge from entirely different perspectives. Researchers contribute new ideas and methods, industry partners bring practical exploration experience, and government organisations contribute the long-term datasets and perspectives that help support Australia’s broader exploration ecosystem.

“This is the beauty of MinEx CRC – bringing together industry, government and research organisations doesn’t happen often,” Mosayeb says.

By creating opportunities for those perspectives to meet, challenge assumptions and exchange ideas, MinEx CRC helps ensure research outcomes remain grounded in real-world exploration challenges while advancing scientific understanding. That collaborative approach sits at the heart of the CRC’s mission to improve exploration outcomes and support future discoveries beneath cover.

“With this model you get opportunities to test ideas and exchange thoughts with people who have their hands on the ground. For me, that exchange of ideas has been one of the most valuable aspects of MinEx CRC.”

The diverse nature of the MinEx CRC community, with colleagues across government, research and industry, has provided a unique working and learning environment throughout Mosayeb’s career development.

He completed his PhD through the University of South Australia (now Adelaide University) and was supervised by David Giles and Caroline Tiddy (Adelaide University), Andrej Bona (formerly Curtin), and Mark Lindsay (CSIRO).

“My PhD supervisors had a big influence on me. They challenged my thinking early on and along the way. They guided me to communicate clearly and supported me in extending the reach of my work beyond my immediate network. That helped shape the way I approach research today.”

Caption: Away from research, Mosayeb enjoys spending time with family, time outdoors and on the golf course.

A future aligned with personal values

Since completing his PhD, Mosayeb has continued his journey at Geoscience Australia, applying many of the concepts developed through his MinEx CRC research to national-scale assessments of critical minerals and strategic materials.

He now works at the intersection of geology, data and decision-making, helping develop approaches that support both government and industry to make more informed exploration decisions.

Mosayeb believes one of MinEx CRC’s most enduring achievements will be its impact on people. Beyond the research outcomes and technologies developed, the CRC has created opportunities for students, researchers, government scientists and industry professionals to learn from one another and tackle challenges together.

For many participants, including Mosayeb, those experiences have shaped not only their technical capabilities but also the way they approach collaboration, communication and problem-solving.

Today, he works for an organisation that closely aligns with his own commitment to building knowledge that benefits the broader exploration sector.

“I truly admire that commitment to providing trusted precompetitive geoscience to everyone – the whole exploration ecosystem,” Mosayeb says.

“The focus here at Geoscience Australia is on building knowledge and datasets that everyone can use to make better exploration decisions, which works perfectly with my own interests.”

Looking ahead, Mosayeb hopes MinEx CRC will be remembered not only for the research and technologies it delivered, but for demonstrating what can be achieved when industry, government and academia come together to solve complex challenges.

“I hope this work supports a change in the way Australia approaches mineral exploration,” Mosayeb says.

“Not just through the research or technologies developed over years, but by demonstrating the value of bringing industry, government and academia together to solve complex challenges that contribute to supporting exploration long after the CRC has finished.”

For Mosayeb, that philosophy reflects his own approach to exploration: bringing together different pieces of information, different perspectives and different ideas to reveal something larger than any one of them could achieve alone.