MINERAL EXPLORATION
company with properties located in the mining
districts of Val d’Or, Quebec; Red Lake, Ontario;
and Snow Lake-Flin Flon, Manitoba. Alexandria
Minerals’s focus is on its flagship property, the
large Cadillac Break Property package in Val d’Or,
which hosts near-surface gold resources along
the prolific, gold-producing Cadillac Break. The
Cadillac Break Property Group stretches for 35
km along the Cadillac Break, a regional fault zone
that has produced some 100 Moz of gold since
the early 1900s.
Arsenic is a natural element distributed
throughout Earth’s crust and is sometimes found as
an impurity in metal ores. It typically occurs in
arsenopyrite, a mineral often associated with gold,
where it is a by-product of gold mining operations.
To prevent arsenic contamination of water resources
during and after gold mining, regulatory agencies
are requiring gold mining companies to comply with
increasingly restrictive arsenic standards.
In the case of Alexandria Minerals, arsenic had
been found in its drill core samples, as well as in
the residue and d rill cuttings from its drilling
operations. To continue drilling and processing
drill core, the water the company uses requires
treatment and cleaning, and the residue requires
separation and proper disposal.
Until recently, water treatment systems for the
mining industry were very expensive and very
large machines with limited efficiency and
functionality. Fordia developed a water treatment
system (WTS) that is easy to transport and easy
to operate and following a suggestion from
Fordia’s Val d’Or team, Alexandria decided to try
the solution. The primary function of the WTS is
to separate cuttings from water. “Once the water
is treated and cleaned, it can be re-used so that a
minimal amount of additional water is required.
Up to 80% of the water can be recovered and re-
used which is ideal for sites where water may be
scarce. Once the cuttings are isolated, they can
be disposed of in environmentally approved
ways, such as bagging them in special tubes and
transporting them off-site.”
Thanks to Fordia’s WTS, Alexandria Minerals
now complies with all local environmental
regulations, enabling it to continue exploring
new sites. “The company was most impressed
with the significant reduction in the amount of
water required for their operation. They also
appreciated the affordability and transportability
of the WTS.” It is automated, simple to use and
requires little training. “Fordia’s WTS has helped
us reduce our environmental impact. Their
solution is unique, and their technical support is
second to none,” said Philippe Berthelot, Vice
President of Exploration.
Fordia, a provider of drilling solutions that
include diamond tools, equipment and
accessories, has been serving customers in the
mineral exploration, geotechnical and
34 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2018
environmental industries since 1977. Its goal is to
improve drilling performance and make drillers’
lives easier. One of the ways to do this is to
develop products that address specific drilling
challenges. The company will be expanding its
line of reaming shells with specialised products
that will be launched at PDAC in March 2018.
acQuire and REFLEX join forces
Last September, acQuire Technology Solutions
Pty Ltd (acQuire), a market-leader in geoscientific
information management software solutions, and
REFLEX, a pioneer in the development of
downhole data acquisition systems, announced a
partnership to integrate their innovative
technology products. “The integration of
acQuire’s GIM Suite and REFLEXHUB-IQ will
vastly improve efficiencies to speed up the data
pipeline by removing manual bottlenecks and
providing a transparent, seamless data exchange
through a secure web link. In addition, consistent
and rich meta-data provides a chain of custody
for information from the field to the database.”
“This is the first initiative of our partnership
with REFLEX”, said Steve Mundell, Director of
Product at acQuire. “The introduction of the
integrated and automated workflow, means there
is less manual handling of data which can lead to
data loss and bottlenecks in process. Improved
data governance and data quality, and streamlined
access to trusted results is the ultimate outcome
and this is keystone to acQuire.”
REFLEX’s Global Manager for Integrated
Solutions, Michelle Carey, said: “We are excited
about the partnership with acQuire and the value
we can provide to our clients through the
combination of the REFLEXHUB-IQ and acQuire’s
GIM software. Our own award winning
REFLEXHUB-IQ is now connected to all our
popular survey and core orientation tools,
offering secure, reliable information instantly
from the field to the office. With built-in QC at the
time of data collection and secure chain of
custody for data workflows, it offers our clients
real-time access to valuable information to make
instant decisions. Now with an integration into
acQuire’s GIM software we can provide a
complete geoscientific solution.”
Customers of acQuire and REFLEX will start to
benefit from the integration when it is launched
in an upcoming release of GIM Suite. The
technology partnership is another step in
providing acQuire customers with a greater level
of connectivity in their operations. REFLEX joins
other established acQuire technology partners
including Esri, ARANZ Geo, Maptek, Corescan,
ALS Ltd, and Geovariances.
SkyTEM’s AEM new generation
SkyTEM’s advanced airborne electromagnetic
(AEM) geophysical survey systems are employed
globally by the mining, environmental and
engineering sectors for a variety of subsurface
mapping needs. Various 2017 press releases from
mineral exploration companies mention the
technology including an Orion Minerals report
stating that SkyTEM acquired high quality data
and identified high priority targets on their
Areachap Belt property, Northern Cape, South
Africa; Goldcorp announcing the application of
SkyTEM technology and Big Data analytics to
explore for gold in northern Quebec, Canada; and
in the Republic of the Sudan, Orca Gold
conducted an extensive SkyTEM airborne
geophysical survey and discovered a large new
water resource that will increase throughput of
their project by reducing unit process operating
cost and increasing ‘in-pit’ resources.
In Autumn 2017, SkyTEM also launched a new
generation of helicopter transient
electromagnetic (TEM) systems to provide
mineral exploration with improved survey
economics through a combination of decreased
survey costs and deeper exploration capabilities.
The technologies are SkyTEMFAST, SkyTEM312
HP (High Power) and SkyTEM306 HP. The
systems are mounted on aerodynamically
engineered small lightweight 341 m 2 platforms.
Lighter than other TEM systems, SkyTEM
systems reduce helicopter fuel consumption
and decrease data acquisition time without
sacrificing depth of exploration or resolution of
geological targets. Light weight is also ideal for
exploration at high altitudes. Systems are
equipped with a high power 250A transmitter
and a fully digital 3 channel receiver for
continuous sampled and streamed data with
real-time signal gating and integrated B-field.
Enhanced features include extremely high
accuracy due to a 5 MHz sample rate with 36-bit
resolution in 3 channels and superior rejection
of high-frequency noise.
SkyTEMFAST systems are designed to fly at
speeds up to 150 km/h, or almost twice the
speed of other TEM systems. This contributes
significantly to lower helicopter costs and crew
time in the field. “Of particular note is the unique
ability of this new generation of TEM technology
to deliver preliminary data and inversions within
48 hours after collection, allowing near real-time
review of survey progress and results. Quick
review of the data gives the exploration team the
power to reconfigure system parameters and
maximise results in various geological settings.
Customisation is achieved within a couple of
hours. For example, the survey can start in FAST
configurations and possibly with wide flight line
spacing, for economic coverage of a property
and, with quick data review for targets of interest,
the system can be reconfigured overnight to
conventional set-up for in-fill lines and highly
detailed spatial resolution over selected areas.”