Novamera says it has completed a very successful field trial of Sustainable Mining by Drilling (SMD) at the Anaconda Mining-owned Romeo and Juliet narrow vein gold deposit in Newfoundland, Canada.

The company, back in July, closed a C$5 million ($4 million) Series A financing round, providing the necessary funds to carry out the first full field trial of SMD.

This proof of concept was designed to test the entire SMD system and process, which combines industry-proven, directional drilling equipment and high-resolution, downhole imaging with transformational innovations, smart systems and data analytics. The result, Novamera says, is a two-pass process that identifies vein shape and is highly flexible to changes in vein geometry; with a selective, surgically-accurate mining process that’s clean, efficient and offers the potential for low capital expenditure with high return.