Sample report. A fictional NWT critical-minerals explorer, shown to illustrate both views: the report the business receives, and the assessment program staff would see. Not a real business.

Travis Consulting

AI Readiness Snapshot

Sample

AI Readiness Snapshot

Aurora Critical Minerals Exploration Ltd.

Mining / mineral exploration · 220 km NE of Yellowknife · Sample

5.8/ 10

Buildingoverall AI readiness

Exploring 1–3Building 4–6Operating 7–9Leading 10

For the business

Aurora Critical Minerals runs a cobalt-and-lithium exploration program 220 km northeast of Yellowknife, and the clearest place AI could earn its keep is the drill-core interpretation backlog your geoscientists named — the single task most likely to free senior time during the field season.

Where AI could help

Three use cases for your operation

Drill-core log summarization

Turn raw core-logging notes and assay tables into first-draft interval summaries your geoscientists review rather than write from scratch. Drafting happens at base camp where connectivity allows; field capture stays offline.

Frees ~4–6 senior geoscientist hours per drill program week.

Two geoscientists each spend ~3 hrs/week drafting interval summaries during active drilling; first-draft automation cuts roughly 70% of the drafting time.

Field report and regulatory drafting

Generate first drafts of land-use and environmental progress reports from your existing field data and templates, so reporting stops competing with field supervision.

Saves ~3 hours per reporting cycle.

Monthly progress reporting currently takes ~4 hrs of principal time; templated drafting reduces it to ~1 hr of review.

Camp logistics and rotation coordination

Draft crew-rotation schedules, charter manifests, and supply lists from your recurring patterns, reducing the manual rebuild every rotation.

Saves ~2 hours per crew rotation.

Rotation planning runs ~3 hrs every two weeks; pattern-based drafting cuts roughly two-thirds of the rebuild.

Ready to use

Prompt templates for your tasks

Core-log interval summary

After a drill run, once logging notes are captured.

You are assisting a geoscientist. From the core-logging notes below, draft a concise interval summary (depth range, lithology, alteration, mineralization, key assay highlights). Flag anything ambiguous for human review. Do not invent values. NOTES:
[paste logging notes]

Monthly progress report draft

At each regulatory / land-use reporting cycle.

Draft a monthly exploration progress report from the field data below, following our standard headings (Activities, Results, Environmental, Next Period). Keep it factual; mark any gaps as [TO CONFIRM]. DATA:
[paste field data]

Crew rotation + charter manifest

Before each rotation.

From the crew list, roles, and rotation dates below, draft a rotation schedule and charter manifest. Note any conflicts or coverage gaps. INPUT:
[paste crew + dates]

Where to start

Your first 30 days

Week 1

Stopwatch the real thing: have both geoscientists time drill-core summary drafting on 2–3 actual runs. Record the minutes — this is the baseline you’ll measure against.

Week 2

30 minutes of AI literacy for the two geoscientists and the office coordinator, using a reputable free course. No business data entered yet — learning only.

Week 3

Paper exercise: for each prompt template in this report, write down the matching Aurora task and the current weekly time it takes. Decide which one to pilot first.

Week 4

Bring the week-1 time data and your top template to a decision conversation about licensing one paid tool for a scoped pilot during next field season.

Tools to consider

Paid tools that fit your needs

Microsoft 365 Copilot

A fit if Aurora already runs on Microsoft 365 — drafting inside Word and Outlook keeps exploration data within your existing tenant.

Widely available as a business add-on; evaluate against your current Microsoft stack and IT support.

Business-tier data handling; confirm your tenant’s data-residency settings before loading exploration data.

Claude (Pro / Team)

Strong for long-document drafting and summarization — core logs, reports — with careful handling of pasted text.

Available in individual and team tiers; choose based on how many staff need access.

Use the paid tier; business inputs are not used to train models on paid tiers.

ChatGPT (Plus / Team)

A capable general drafting assistant for reports and logistics if your team already leans toward it.

Individual and team tiers available; pick to match team size.

Use a paid business tier and keep confidential assay data out of free consumer versions.

Guardrails

What not to use AI for

Never paste exploration or assay data, drill results, or any confidential business content into free Claude.ai, free ChatGPT, or free Gemini — free tiers may use inputs to train future models.
Don’t use AI to make geological or resource-estimation calls. It drafts and summarizes; a qualified person interprets and signs off.
Keep pre-disclosure exploration results out of any tool that isn’t a licensed, access-controlled business tier — confidentiality of results is a material concern.
Don’t rely on AI-drafted regulatory submissions without a human review against the actual reporting requirements.

For program administrators

Program administrator assessment

Readiness across the five vectors

A small, technically capable critical-minerals explorer with an unusually clear value case but a real infrastructure constraint. Strategy and workforce signal genuine readiness to act; the gating issue is connectivity, not appetite. A strong candidate for a scoped, offline-aware pilot rather than a broad rollout.

5/ 10

Data architecture & maturity

Building

Assay and GIS data are digital, but drill logs are partly paper at the rig and records are split across systems — retrievable, but not consolidated.

3/ 10

Connectivity & infrastructure

Exploring

Satellite + LTE at base camp, off-grid at drill sites; any tooling must tolerate queue-and-sync and intermittent uplinks.

6/ 10

Workforce literacy

Building

Two geoscientists are technically strong and curious about AI; field-crew exposure is low, so adoption would start in the office.

6/ 10

Governance & ethics

Building

Exploration-data confidentiality is taken seriously but governed informally; no written data-handling policy yet.

9/ 10

Strategic alignment

Operating

A specific, costed pain point (drill-core interpretation backlog) and clear urgency heading into field season — the strongest dimension by far.

Flags

Risk flags for program staff

concern

connectivity

Off-grid drill sites and intermittent base-camp uplinks mean always-online tools won’t work in the field; any pilot must be offline-tolerant.

note

governance

No written data-handling policy yet for confidential exploration results — worth establishing before broad tool rollout.

Suggested next step

A Phase 1 readiness consultation could help close the connectivity and data-residency gaps and scope an offline-tolerant pilot before any tool selection — one possible next step, not a commitment.

This is one possible shape for an advisor or funding-reviewer view. Evaluation criteria would be refined with whoever uses it; nothing here is a commitment.