Orexplore Technologies Limited, a mineral scanning technology company focused on the global mining and metals sector, says it has entered the South American market with a commercial field deployment for Gold Fields at its’ Salares Norte project in Chile.
Salares Norte is a high-grade, epithermal gold-silver, open-pit deposit in the High Andes, Atacama Region, of northern Chile , and will be Gold Field’s second mine in South America, joining Cerro Corona in Peru.
Under this agreement, valued at approximately A$430,000 ($285,369), Orexplore will deliver site-based scanning and analysis of around 3,000 m of drilled core for the exploration team.
Orexplore says it will roll-out its new “Smart Sampler” software solution to enable the exploration team to reduce the quantity of drill core that is sent for analysis through assay laboratories. The company will also work collaboratively with the Gold Fields’ site and corporate teams to integrate the broader suite of new Orexplore solutions offered through the technology platform to advance Gold Fields’ orebody knowledge.
Orexplore has designed and is manufacturing a containerised deployment solution tailored to site conditions through local suppliers in Santiago, suitable as a solution across similar South American sites.
Two GeoCore X10® units will be deployed in the container, and Orexplore’s engineering team will attend site to undertake the commissioning and initial start-up of the units. Geoscience and technical personnel will deliver training to Gold Field’s geologists and technicians enabling them to self-operate the GeoCore X10 units in a dry hire style arrangement. Orexplore will provide systems technicians, scanning trainers and a project geologist to ensure ongoing operational and value delivery assurance.
Orexplore’s new Santiago office is being established to meet the expected demand as a result of the sales and business development efforts in the region that continue to identify ongoing annual drill campaigns and large-scale core farms across multiple countries, that are suitable to the technology, it said. As demonstrated through the Perth and Stockholm laboratories, this enables an effective and efficient onboarding process as customers send initial quantities of core to establish trust in the technology and delivery team.
Orexplore’s technology platform comprises its field sensing GeoCore X10® hardware unit that rapidly scans drilled core in less than 15 minutes per metre, and presents the information as a 3D digital model through the company’s Orexplore Insight® software. This platform, the company says, enables remote mining and geology personnel located anywhere in the world to analyse and interpret these 3D core scans, and connect the information into their standard geological software packages to assess orebodies and rapidly study the optimal methods of extraction.
Orexplore says: “This technology is unique through its ability to see through the entire inside of the core using medical grade CT scanners, and to combine this with dual XRF sensors to build three-dimensional elemental and geochemical models that drive powerful automated data-science solutions.
“As one of the few true “deep tech” companies with capabilities spanning from sensor manufacture to data-science and geo-science, Orexplore can provide rapid “sense to decide” solutions that the myriad of geoscience-only companies utilising common third-party sensed data can’t.”
Orexplore’s Managing Director, Brett Giroud, commented: “We are very pleased to be working with Gold Field’s as our first step into the South American region, and to further demonstrate the broad application of our technology platform through our first deployment that targets full integration into an operating mine’s processes and workflows.
“South America is a very large base metals and gold market, with a proven appetite for technology adoption that we believe is well suited to our transformational technology platform. We are excited about the engagement we are seeing in the region and the excellent opportunity this represents for Orexplore going forward.”
He added: “As a business, we remain laser focused on the commercialisation of our technology platform by driving market adoption of our suite of solutions across the mining value chain. Coupled with the Exploration and Resource to Reserve (R2R) solution deployments over the last 12 months, this agreement further demonstrates the breadth and depth of the technology’s market potential and its accelerating global traction.
“In addition to this, and other recent commercial field deployments, Orexplore is rapidly developing additional solutions including ore sorting, and ESG products such as acid-rock drainage and site based environmental monitoring. Working with Tier 1 and other customers through our laboratories, these solutions are advancing rapidly to target customer demands and drive future potential global site deployments.” x
Gold Field’s Vice President of Exploration for the Americas region, Diego Huete, said: “We are very pleased to be commencing this journey with a company as committed to transforming the industry as Orexplore. Working closely with their team, we can see the value creation on offer through this technology from sample optimisation through to Orebody knowledge and ESG solutions, and we are excited by the opportunity that being a first-mover in the digital transformation of mining provides to our business.”
