The company

A geospatial and data engineering practice, based in Nouakchott.

Richat Data Science designs and runs the databases and geographic information systems that technical organisations depend on, and turns what they hold into analysis, models and decisions.

What we believe

Data is worth only what can be defended about it.

We hold structure to matter more than volume, validation more than speed, and documentation to be part of the deliverable rather than an extra. A system that only its author can operate is an unfinished system.

The company takes its name from the Guelb er Richat, Mauritania's most recognisable geological structure — an object better understood from space than from the ground. That is a fair description of what we do.

03 — How we work

The habits that make data trustworthy.

Most data problems are not technical failures. They are the result of rules that were never written down, or were written down and never enforced.

Figure 2 — A spatial data infrastructure, from entry to delivery

Principle one

Structure before data

The model is designed, reviewed and agreed before a single record is loaded. Restructuring a populated database is a far heavier undertaking than designing it properly at the outset.

Principle two

Validation at the door

Rules are enforced where data enters the system, not discovered in a report six months later. What fails is returned to a named owner with the reason attached.

Principle three

Standards, not conventions

Metadata to ISO 19115, services to OGC specifications, resource reporting aligned with JORC and NI 43-101 where it applies. Portable by design, so you are never locked in.

Principle four

Documented from day one

Structures, rules, routines and scripts are written down as they are built. A system nobody but its author can operate is an unfinished system.

Why Richat

Four things you can take as given.

Standards-based

ISO 19115 metadata, OGC services, governance aligned with JORC and NI 43-101. Nothing proprietary, nothing that locks you in.

Remote by design

A GMT working day, overlapping West Africa, Europe, the Gulf, and the early morning in Western Australia.

Three working languages

Arabic, French, English. Reporting, training and documentation in the language your organisation works in.

A Mauritanian company

Local content for national procurement. Available as prime contractor or as the named partner in a consortium.

In practice

The useful facts.

Legal form: SARLU under Mauritanian law, Nouakchott. RCCM and NIF registration in progress.
Working languages: Arabic, French, English.
Where we work: Remotely from Nouakchott for operation and development; on site across Mauritania, West Africa and the Maghreb for training, commissioning and field collection.
Standards: ISO 19115, OGC specifications, JORC and NI 43-101 where they apply. A client's internal standards take precedence where they exist.
Public procurement: Available as prime contractor or as the named Mauritanian partner within an international consortium.
Confidentiality: Non-disclosure agreement signed before any data moves. Working copies encrypted and destroyed at the end of the engagement on instruction.

Tell us what the data has to do.

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