MINERAL EXPLORATION
Eurasian Resources Group is looking to change the early-stage mineral exploration process with a ground-breaking smart exploration rover , NOMAD
As moves from one step of the mining process to the next have become more fluid , so too has the mix of companies entering the sector looking to shake-up an industry calling out for change .
There has been a surge of firms from other industries spotting opportunities to leverage artificial intelligence ( AI ), technology designed for space exploration , and more to enhance the mineral exploration process . At the same time , companies previously focused on downstream mining activities have begun to look upstream , aiming to capture value for their clients by improving performance across the entire mining process .
IM looks at both pools of new entrants , as well as some of the companies with mineral exploration in their blood , to gain an understanding of how the sector is evolving .
Orica Orebody Intelligence
With the establishment of its Digital Solutions business in 2019 , Orica effectively expanded its reach across the mining value chain , in a move that had positive ramifications for the mineral exploration sector .
The Orebody Intelligence platform that emerged out of this business was designed to enable customers to gain accurate insights into their orebodies from the outset . This is expected to provide compounded benefits across the value chain , with the more informed decision making that takes place early in the process resulting in higher realised benefits at the end .
Orica has many exploration aids for clients to leverage , all focused on improving orebody characterisation .
The company recently acquired Axis Mining Technology to expand this portfolio , bringing driller-operable surveying tools into the offering . Peter Leckie , Senior Manager – Marketing & Technology within the Orebody Intelligence division , said these tools help define the accurate location and direction of any borehole , which impacts mine planning , to grade control , to dilution management and blending .
Leckie told IM : “ Ultimately , by carefully engineering the Axis hardware and operating practices to the drilling workflow , the miners ’ geology teams will get higher quality surveys and a better data set to use for subsequent planning and optimisation .”
This hardware is augmented by the softwareenabled workflows of Orica Digital Solutions , which ensure critical information gets to the personnel within the value chain that can make the critical decisions to progress the project in question .
Asked for an example of where Axis technology , specifically , is enabling mining companies to accelerate and enhance the existing resource definition , planning , scheduling and drilling phases , Leckie looked to the Axis ’ Champ Ori™ hardware .
“ Axis ’ Champ Ori hardware for core orientation is significantly lighter than other products on the market – reducing manual handling – and , by integrating into drilling hardware , we are replacing pieces of metal with measurement tools ,” he said . Data from Champ Ori is now being circulated that shows more accurate and useable surveys have come out of the hardware ’ s use , he added .
The soon-to-be-released Champ Navigator2™
solution , meanwhile , is intended to solve an industry challenge in continuous surveying for holes that start vertically and then kick off with depth . “ When combined with our driller-aligned workflows , this will deliver another product that provides superior-quality surveys that we expect will be well received by drillers ,” Leckie said .
It is the combination of this hardware with complementary software platforms that stood out for Leckie when it comes significantly accelerating and enhancing mining workflows , hence the reason Orica is investing further in this integration .
“ We are now deploying our global team of hardware and software engineers to build a bestin-class user experience not just for the initial recipients of the data , but for any mining divisions who need the data for downstream operations ,” he said . Once this team has ensured the dataset , and the hardware / software that generates it , are aligned with the tools and processes used by customers , Orica intends to provide a platform that carries this data , with the material it represents , through the mining and processing parts of the operation .
To enable this , Orica has commenced work on its OreIQ™ platform – a companion to its more established BlastIQ™ and MonitorIQ™ platforms elsewhere within Orica Digital Solutions . OreIQ , Leckie says , will not just collect and surface data from Orica ’ s Orebody Intelligence tools , it will carry this data and layer it with other measurements as it is drilled , blasted and moved – “ ultimately enabling the sustainable and digitally-enabled mine to mill systems ”.
With the company ’ s agnostic approach to this type of process – epitomised in a recent collaboration with Caterpillar to explore opportunities to integrate key elements of their respective domains – Orica ’ s exploration-related work looks set to grow from here .
Leckie said as much , referencing a recent release of a new version of its downhole magnetic resonance tool , the BMR40 . This tool generates crucial insights on subsurface water
Axis ’ Champ Ori hardware for core orientation is significantly lighter than other products on the market , according to Orica
FEBRUARY 2024 | International Mining 25