The mechanism behind LoderaIQ’s royalty integrity layer.
Revenue assurance in LoderaIQ works by comparing two independent accounts of the same production event: the tonnage and grade a producer declares, and the tonnage and grade the platform observes from the ground itself. Observed production is built from measured pit and stockpile volumes, XRF-defensible grade, and a reference price applied to the resulting metal content. Where the declared account falls short of the observed account, the gap is surfaced as a reconciliation item on a single auditable trail rather than an allegation buried in a spreadsheet. This page explains the method; the business case for regulators and financiers lives on the Solutions pages linked below.
Request a briefingDeclared production versus observed production
Royalty leakage rarely announces itself. It hides in the difference between the volume a site reports and the volume it actually moved, and in grade figures that no independent party ever measured. LoderaIQ closes that gap by reconstructing observed production from physical evidence and holding it against the declaration for the same period, the same block, and the same commodity. The output is a like-for-like comparison a competent person can inspect line by line, not a black-box score.
The declared account
What the producer reports for the period: volumes moved, grades claimed, and the royalty computed on that basis.
The observed account
What the platform independently measures for the same block and period: change in pit and stockpile volume, XRF-grounded grade, and metal content valued at a reference price.
The reconciliation item
Where observed exceeds declared, the difference is raised as a discrete, timestamped item on the audit trail, attributable to a specific site, period and commodity.
How observed production is assembled
The observed account is not a single reading; it is a chain of measurements, each with its own method and its own honest limit. Volume, grade and value are established separately and then combined, so that a challenge to any one component can be examined without discarding the others. Every input carries its provenance into the same registry, which is what makes the result defensible rather than merely indicative.
Volume, pit & stockpile change
AI measures material moved by differencing a current digital elevation model against a dated baseline over the same footprint, using satellite-derived elevation for wide-area volume today and centimetre-accurate drone photogrammetry as the aerial layer rolls out. This yields a defensible volumetric estimate; it is a measurement of earth moved, not yet a statement of contained metal.
Grade, XRF and physical sampling
Grade for the observed account rests on field-portable XRF grade measurement backed by physical sampling. Spectral imagery can indicate surface mineralogy or alteration and help direct sampling, but it is not an assay and is never used as the grade of record.
Value, reference price on metal
Contained metal implied by volume and grade is valued at a stated reference price for the commodity, producing an observed value that can be compared directly against the royalty basis declared.
One auditable trail is what makes the number stick
A discrepancy is only useful if it can survive challenge. In LoderaIQ every measurement, sample, tag read and price applied is written once to a shared registry, shown on one map, and preserved on one audit trail that all layers write into. A reconciliation item therefore arrives with its full lineage attached: which baseline, which survey, which XRF reading, which reference price, and when each was captured. That single trail is the spine that turns an observation into something enforceable, because there is one authoritative record rather than competing versions to argue over.
One registry
Volume, grade, value, custody and price for a given block resolve to a single set of records, not parallel copies that drift apart.
Timestamped lineage
Each input keeps its date and method, so an item can be traced back to the exact evidence that produced it.
Attributable to source
Every discrepancy is bound to a specific site, period and commodity, making it addressable rather than aggregate.
Challenge-ready
Because inputs are separable, a producer can contest one component without collapsing the whole reconciliation, and the review is on the record.
Tamper-resistant custody and automated payment
Reconciliation identifies what is owed; custody and collection make sure it is actually captured. RFID and QR tags maintain a tamper-resistant chain of custody from pit to point of sale, so tonnage cannot quietly disappear between measurement and settlement. Once a royalty obligation is established on the trail, collection is designed to run through a digital wallet with automated payments, closing the loop between what was observed and what is remitted without a manual handoff where value can slip away.
Custody by tag
RFID and QR bind physical lots to registry records, so each parcel is accounted for through every transfer rather than reconciled only at the end.
Wallet-based settlement
Established obligations are collected through a digital wallet, keeping the payment on the same record as the reconciliation that produced it.
Automated payments
Remittance is triggered from the audit trail rather than re-keyed, removing the gap where declared and collected amounts diverge.
Commercial model
The layer runs on the same commercial model as the rest of the platform, so assurance tracks production instead of requiring upfront infrastructure.
What a reconciliation item is, and is not
A reconciliation item is a defensible, evidence-backed indication that observed production exceeds what was declared. It is not, by itself, a legal finding, and it does not replace competent-person or qualified-person judgement. Volumetrics establish material moved; XRF and physical sampling establish grade; spectral data indicates surface mineralogy but is never treated as an assay. An AI-generated target is not a defined resource or reserve. Across the board these outputs support sign-off under JORC and NI 43-101-style codes; they inform the competent person, they do not stand in for them. Likewise, a reference-price contained-metal value is an indicative gross basis: it must be reconciled against the specific statutory royalty basis (gross value, NSR or payable product), since payable percentages, treatment and refining charges, moisture and penalties can separate observed value from realised, payable value. Observed volume is converted to tonnage using a measured or assumed in-situ bulk density, and stockpile volume (ore) is distinguished from total pit-volume change (ore plus overburden) before grade is applied; wide-area satellite volumetrics serve for screening and triage today, with centimetre-accurate drone photogrammetry set to provide the volume-change figures relied on in a dispute as the aerial layer rolls out.
Who relies on the revenue assurance layer
This pillar explains the mechanism. For how it maps to specific mandates and decisions, see the audience pages below.
Governments & regulators
See how declared-versus-observed reconciliation and single-trail collection help recover leaking royalties and enforce production reporting.
Learn more →Investors & financiers
See how an independent, auditable account of production underpins confidence in reported output and revenue integrity.
Learn more →See the reconciliation applied to your programme
LoderaIQ’s revenue assurance layer is live on a national mining programme, with an aerial drone-survey layer rolling out to strengthen ground truth. Request a briefing to walk through the declared-versus-observed method against your own reporting and collection process.
Request a briefing