Judges

Dr. Francisca Maepa is a Principal of Geoscience Data at BHP in Toronto, Canada with specializations in data science applied to mineral exploration. Francisca has worked on numerous geoscience data analytics projects at BHP, SRK Consulting, Southern Mapping (Woolpert) and as an independent consultant implementing machine learning workflows for processing geophysics, geochemistry, and satellite data.

Francisca is currently leading the global implementation of a cloud-based data infrastructure at BHP, open subsurface data universe (OSDU) for mining aiming to create a single-source of truth for geoscience data to enable better data integration, analytics, and interoperability. Francisca participated in the 2021 NGEA competition, her team developed deep learning predictive models for mapping prospectivity in the Yukon for multiple mineral deposit types and associated mineral systems.

Francisca obtained her bachelor from the University of Limpopo, South Africa and a PhD at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada in 2021. Her PhD research integrated the mineral system framework, machine learning and spatial statistics to determine the controls of mineral prospectivity in orogenic gold deposits in the Abitibi greenstone belt.