In February, Nippon Dragon Resources and MaXem Equipment entered into an exclusive Thermal Fragmentation distributorship agreement for various south African countries. In May 2014, a Thermal Fragmentation unit (Dragon) was delivered to MaXem’s facilities, followed by Nippon’s employees, whose mandate was to train MaXem’s employees and also visit the mine site where the first deployment of the technology in South Africa would take place.

In early June, Nippon’s team returned to South Africa to present the technology to potential clients, including one of the most predominant gold producers in the world. Over the following days a series of performance, security tests and demonstrations were conducted for the benefit of several decision makers and union representatives. The Dragon has since been deployed within a stope some 1,000 m below surface on a demonstration contract and Thermal Fragmentation operations commenced on July 3rd, 2014.

“Operating in a reef-type orebody was something new for us and the Dragon performed extremely well fragmenting its first hole in South Africa. We do not foresee any technical difficulties with regards to fragmenting the type rock and the dip encountered in the orebody” said Donald Brisebois, Nippon’s VP Operations and Technology.

MaXem is a multifaceted company, whose core business is to supply hard rock mining equipment and services to southern Africa Countries, with a specific focus on precision long-hole drilling and other methods that enable better efficiency in mining. MaXem Contracting includes long-hole drilling, drop and inverse raising and mechanised mine production. MaXem has a clear understanding of mining inherent risks as well as detailed commodity experience that includes gold, platinum, heavy minerals and base metals.

Nippon is active in the exploration and the development of gold resources in Quebec and Peru. It holds a gold property with resources recognised in accordance with NI 43-101, a modular treatment plant and also an exclusive license for the Thermal Fragmentation mining method for exploiting narrow-vein ore deposits. The company’s growth strategy is based on:

• The development of its gold deposits with the objective of producing revenue from its operations
• Increasing the value of its mining assets by prioritizing the exploration targets
• The commercialisation and employment of its thermal fragmentation technology.