Acrux Sorting Technology (Pty) Ltd (AST), a wholly owned subsidiary of commodity trader and resource funding and investment specialist Acrux Resources (Pty) Ltd, and IMS Engineering (Pty) Ltd (IMS), a globally recognised crushing, screening and sorting equipment manufacturer, have announced that they have entered into a strategic partnership to provide sensor-based sorting technology to mineral resource owners on a fully funded basis.
The partnership has the objective of creating value for miners by upgrading marginal or uneconomical ore into valuable material that can be fed into an existing processing plant or sold on a concentrated basis at no financial risk to the capital spend. “The uniqueness of the partnership offers innovative de-risked solutions to mineral resource owners, customised to the mineral commodity and operational environment and provides a unique opportunity to engineer sorting solutions with a heightened focus on adding further value in operations. The 360ᵒ solution will unlock opportunities to increase revenue and reduce costs for resource owners with no need to fund the capital solution.”
Acrux stated that with the current economic challenges in the mining sector, resource owners have had limited success in accessing this technology due to a lack of capital funding. “This partnership will not only provide a solution to the capital funding challenges and improve engineering and operational capacity, but will also add value to resource owners’ ESG scorecards, as the technology does not require water, optimises operational costs and efficiency, and reduces the need for tailings treatment and overall environmental liability.”
“We are excited to partner with IMS because of their technological, operational, and engineering expertise. We believe that this partnership will deliver world-class sorting technology equipment and solutions to the sector,” said Sean Browne, AST’s Executive Director. “We are focused on providing mineral resource owners with fully funded turn-key solutions that will result in more saleable product and in turn reposition them on the cost curve.”
Paul Bracher, IMS’s Managing Director, commented, “Partnering with AST to deliver sustainable transformation to the mining industry will allow us to drive more business impact to our clients through an innovative funding solution and an ESG technology that is centered on the use of sensor sorting technologies.”