For years, many African countries have found it hard to access their mineral resources. The problem is not a lack of minerals, but the high cost of exploration tools. Mineral exploration draws on three complementary disciplines, geology, geophysics, and geochemistry, that together determine whether a deposit is real, how deep it sits, and whether it is worth drilling. Geophysics, which measures subsurface physical properties such as magnetic susceptibility, conductivity, and density, supplies much of the early evidence.

The most cost-intensive of these in Africa has historically been regional airborne geophysical surveys, conducted by manned aircraft equipped with magnetometers and electromagnetic sensors. One such survey can cost between one and five million US dollars for just a few thousand square kilometres. Because of tight budgets, many countries can only afford these surveys once every ten years or even less often. Ghana, with its large reserves of gold, bauxite, manganese, and other important minerals, faced this same problem. Now, a Ghanaian scientist has come up with a solution that is changing mineral exploration in Africa and beyond.

Delali Dagodzo is Ghana’s first licensed drone pilot and has over fourteen years of experience spanning earth sciences, UAV systems, and geospatial intelligence. His academic grounding is in mineral exploration, with a graduate specialisation in GIS and remote sensing, including research focused on satellite-based mineralisation mapping using LANDSAT and ASTER imagery to interpret hydrothermal alteration zones and guide exploration targeting.

This foundation means he approaches geophysical survey data not as a standalone product but as one layer within a multi-source geospatial intelligence system. He has worked as a senior geological logging specialist on oil and gas drilling operations across Ghana, Algeria, Gabon, and Guyana, and has designed and led Ghana’s UAV inspection programme for the national power grid at GRIDCo. He trained personnel at Ghana’s Minerals Commission to operate long-endurance UAV systems fitted with high-sensitivity magnetometers for aeromagnetic surveys, a training initiative that marks a major turning point in how developing countries can build sovereign capacity in mineral exploration.

Dagodzo set out to solve a problem that is easy to explain but hard to fix. In a standard exploration programme, regional aeromagnetic surveys come first. They map variations in the Earth’s magnetic field caused by differences in rock types at depth, particularly the concentration of magnetite-bearing rocks associated with certain mineralising systems. These magnetic anomalies guide geologists toward structurally favourable zones for gold, copper, cobalt, lithium, and rare-earth elements. Geological mapping then refines the picture, and geochemical sampling confirms the pathfinder elements that signal a buried mineral system. Each method is incomplete without the others: geophysics identifies the target, geology interprets the architecture, and geochemistry provides the chemical fingerprint.

Conducting these programmes with manned aircraft and imported laboratory services needs certified planes, skilled international crews, careful planning, fuel, and specialised data processing. For countries like Ghana, Mali, Zimbabwe, or Zambia, this represents a major expense and not something they can do often.Dagodzo saw that long-endurance UAV systems fitted with small, sensitive magnetometers could collect the same foundational aeromagnetic data as manned surveys, but at a fraction of the cost, and with local teams running the operations.

He selected the Skyfront hybrid multi-rotor UAV platform, one of the longest-flying multi-rotor systems in the world, integrated with magnetometer payloads calibrated to detect variations as fine as 1 to 5 nanotesla, enabling the resolution needed to map near-surface and mid-depth magnetic structures. He and his team worked with Ghana’s Civil Aviation Authority to secure flight permissions, establish safety protocols, develop standard operating procedures, and coordinate with air traffic management.

The critical gap in sub-Saharan Africa was not equipment availability, but trained people and institutional confidence in the new system. Dagodzo focused on building both.His training programme for Ghana’s Minerals Commission is structured around the full exploration intelligence workflow. It covers UAV mission planning and flight operations, magnetometer calibration and instrument management, aeromagnetic data acquisition and quality control, and introductory data processing and anomaly interpretation, teaching participants to understand how magnetic data integrates with geological and geochemical information to narrow down drill targets.

The course runs four weeks, blending classroom instruction with intensive fieldwork. Participants are assessed through practical examinations and supervised survey flights. The objective is for the Minerals Commission to operate autonomously, deploying its own trained teams and equipment without depending on foreign contractors or protracted procurement cycles.The pilot phase delivered clear results. Within six months of programme deployment, over 3,000 square kilometres had been surveyed across prospective terrains in the Ashanti and Western regions, coverage that would have taken more than a year to procure and execute under a traditional manned aircraft model.

The aeromagnetic data confirmed structural extensions consistent with known mineralising systems and identified several new areas displaying anomalous magnetic signatures warranting follow-up investigation, prompting exploration partners to initiate ground-truthing and drilling programmes. Applications for exploration licences in the surveyed areas increased by 20 percent, reflecting growing investor confidence in the quality and reliability of available geological data. Costs fell by approximately 60 to 70 percent compared to traditional manned survey programmes, principally because the model eliminated international contractor fees, aircraft rentals, fuel, insurance, and external data processing charges.

This progress matters beyond the numbers. For decades, the foundational exploration data for most of Africa, including aeromagnetic grids, regional geochemical databases, and structural geology interpretations, was generated and held by companies based in Canada, Australia, and Europe. African governments depended on outside contractors for the basic geoscientific intelligence needed to govern their own resources. Because surveys were expensive and infrequent, large portions of the continent remained undercharacterised, and investors viewed African projects as carrying greater uncertainty risk than comparable projects elsewhere.

Dagodzo’s programme is beginning to change this narrative by demonstrating that African institutions can generate their own first-pass mineral intelligence. Ghana’s minerals sector can now ask and answer its own geological questions using its own people and resources. The programme has drawn attention from both geoscientists and UAV specialists precisely because it bridges two fields that rarely converge in practice. Geophysicists with expertise in aeromagnetic data acquisition seldom also manage national-scale UAV operations programmes. Building this cross-disciplinary capability within a functioning government minerals authority, rather than leaving it as a technology demonstration, sets Dagodzo’s work apart from many academic or pilot-stage initiatives.

Experts have noted that the Ghana programme is among the first in West Africa to reach full operational status within a government minerals institution.Dagodzo’s model is replicable. It is built on three elements that most mineral-endowed developing countries can access: long-endurance commercial UAV platforms such as the Skyfront system, compact magnetometer sensors compatible with UAV payloads, and a structured training programme designed to build survey competence within local institutions. None of these components require advanced industrial infrastructure or specialised aviation facilities.

Across Africa, in Tanzania, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, large mineral endowments remain poorly surveyed. In the Sahel and southern Africa, constrained budgets and limited local technical capacity have made traditional exploration programmes rare. The framework Dagodzo established in Ghana addresses precisely these constraints.The model has relevance beyond Africa. Mineral-rich developing countries in South and Southeast Asia, Central America, and the Pacific face equivalent challenges. Papua New Guinea, with significant mineral wealth and demanding terrain, presents an obvious application. Central Asian countries with extensive unsurveyed mineral belts are another. The limiting factors are not geographic but structural: mineral potential combined with limited survey budgets and insufficient local geophysical capacity.

Dagodzo’s approach is designed to solve for all three simultaneously.It is important to be precise about what UAV magnetometry can and cannot do within a full exploration programme. It is not a replacement for all airborne geophysics. Manned fixed-wing surveys can cover 1,000 to 5,000 square kilometres per week at line spacings of 100 to 400 metres and are capable of deeper penetration depending on sensor configuration. UAV-based surveys cover 50 to 200 square kilometres per week at tighter line spacings of 25 to 100 metres, with sensitivity suited to near-surface and mid-depth targets.

This resolution makes drone magnetometry particularly well suited to following up regional anomalies, mapping exploration licence areas in detail, and generating the focused geophysical grids that precede geological mapping and geochemical sampling campaigns. Used as the first airborne layer in an integrated exploration workflow, with geological mapping and geochemical sampling following, UAV magnetometry delivers the resolution and targeting precision that regional manned surveys alone cannot provide.

Dagodzo selected the right tool for the right stage of the exploration process and built the institutional capacity to deploy it. His academic training in mineral exploration, with a graduate specialisation in GIS and remote sensing, and his research applying LANDSAT and ASTER satellite imagery to hydrothermal alteration mapping, inform how he contextualises geophysical survey results within the broader geoscientific picture. He does not treat drone magnetometry as a standalone answer, but as the leading layer in an integrated geospatial intelligence system that also draws on geological and geochemical data.

The people he trains are not simply drone operators; they are geoscientific data acquisition specialists who understand where aeromagnetic survey results fit within the larger logic of mineral exploration, and what geological and geochemical work must follow to move from anomaly to drill target.Ghana has demonstrated that its own institutions can produce high-quality geophysical data using local expertise and appropriate technology. The long-standing pattern of external companies holding exploration knowledge about Africa will not be reversed by a single training programme.

But each time a trained Ghanaian operator flies a long-endurance UAV with a calibrated magnetometer and delivers survey data that is then interpreted alongside geological maps and geochemical results, that pattern is challenged. Delali Dagodzo’s work will strengthen the quality and sovereignty of Ghana’s mineral exploration data for years to come. If other countries adopt this model, the effect could extend far beyond Ghana’s borders.