**Acknowledgements**

This research was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the programme of "R4–Innovative Technologies for Resource

Efficiency—Research for the Provision of Raw Materials of Strategic Economic Importance" and is part of the project UPNS4D+ with FKZ 033R126C. Special thanks go to Tobias Hartmann from the Advanced Mining Technology Institute of RWTH Aachen University and Prof. Paul Burgwinkel and Jörn Lachmann from the company Fritz Rensmann GmbH & Co. with whom we designed and built up the exploration vehicle.

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Further, we want to thank the other consortium partners for their valuable contributions: indurad GmbH; MILAN Geoservice GmbH; Institute for Advanced Mining Technology at RWTH Aachen University; XGraphic Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Aachen; Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg; Fritz Rensmann, Maschinenfabrik, Diesellokomotiven, Getriebe GmbH & Co. KG; and GHH Fahrzeuge GmbH.
