BORE HOLE STABILISER Archives - International Mining

IMDEX plans to reveal the latest advances in its production mining tools and software at MINExpo INTERNATIONAL 2024, in Las Vegas, USA, later this this month.

IMDEX Chief Technology Officer, John Hickey, said the tools and software assisted mining and exploration companies to safely find, define and mine orebodies with precision and at speed.

“Location, geochemistry, mineralogy and structure define the rock,” Hickey said. “Our tools capture and analyse the data on each element.

“Structure becomes even more important with deeper exploration and lower-grade orebodies. We have been focused on developing market-leading tools to enable the collection of structural data for more than 20 years.”

IMDEX tools and software break down information siloes and gather critical data to the deliver the best results from drill, survey or geological evaluations, the company added.

Specific to the MINExpo event, IMDEX will promote:

BLASTDOG™ – a semi-autonomous system for multi-parameter measurement of blastholes, which allows automated spatial domaining of material characteristics and fracturing in ore and waste;
OMNIx™ and BOLT™ (underground) – a production-hole survey tools for underground applications measuring blasthole deviation using a north-seeking gyro;
IMDEXHUB-IQ™ – a solution that provides secure access to validated field data, which is transmitted from a range of sub-surface instrumentation, analytical instruments and mobile form data inputs; and
Bore Hole Stabiliser™ (BHS™) – a multifunctional product formulated specifically for air-drilling applications, particularly drill and blast applications. It helps prevent a wide range of downhole problems including poor collaring, hole decay or sidewall instability; provides a degree of lubrication to the hole; and will improve the lifting capacity of the air stream for cuttings transportation.

“BLASTDOG is a game changer,” Hickey said. “Its unique, eight-arm calliper is able to ‘feel’ the side of the blasthole, giving the drill and blast engineers information about the diameter of the hole along the entire hole length. It can detect voids and other structures to assist in modelling.

“Downhole survey tools such as the OMNIx deliver an accurate trace of the hole path and because the data is captured in IMDEXHUB-IQ, it is connected to the structural data and readings are uploaded almost immediately.

“This remains a breakthrough, by eliminating spreadsheets and data imports from files. IMDEXHUB-IQ manages the acquisition and collation of these different datasets with full chain of custody protocols.”

MINExpo 2024 will run from September 24-26, 2024, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

IMDEX has revealed record September-quarter revenue amid a strong start to its financial year, with CEO Paul House noting revenue growth was up in all key regions with an increasing demand for real-time orebody knowledge and robust industry fundamentals.

IMDEX says its technologies enable resource companies and drilling contractors, to find, define, and mine orebodies – with precision, confidence and at speed.

Record unaudited first-quarter FY2023 revenue of A$105.9 million ($69.2 million) was up 22% on the same period last year, IMDEX said.

Sensors on hire were up 13% on a year ago and 9% on the previous quarter, meanwhile.

House, speaking at the company’s AGM today, said supply chain pressures also continued to ease during its first quarter of the financial year.

Revenue growth was up 17% year-on-year in the Americas, 29% in Africa and Europe, and 27% in Australia and Asia.

He said exploration budgets remained strong in Australia, with clients reporting longer order books of nine to 10 months rather than three to four months.

Major and mid-cap mining clients were reporting ongoing or expanded exploration budgets, and deeper orebodies were resulting in larger and more complex drilling programs, he added.

The drive to expand existing projects or find additional orebodies to sustain current production levels, continuing strong demand for metals across a broad range of sectors, and an increased demand for critical metals all contributed to a strong outlook.

“It is worth noting that during this current cycle, unlike any cycle previously, the industry has not made any major discoveries,” House said. “We believe that this supports both the continued need for exploration drilling and the importance of precision mining technologies that may improve the economics of smaller deposits or increase the mine life of existing operations.”

House said that early in the first quarter of FY23 IMDEX signed its first significant commercial contract with a tier-one resource company in South Africa for its BORE HOLE STABILISER™ (BHS), part of its suite of drilling optimisation products.

BHS is a multifunctional product formulated specifically for air drilling applications, particularly drill & blast applications.

Trials are underway with underground commercial prototypes in Africa, Asia, and Australia, and further opportunities exist for surface applications, according to the company.

House also provided an update on development of BLAST DOG™, a multi-sensor probe designed to measure a wide range of geophysical properties of an orebody and map its material rock properties.

The data collected by BLAST DOG has the potential to be used by mining companies to develop programs that could improve mine planning, blast design, fragmentation and material movement tracking, post-blast.

IMDEX achieved the first commercial contract with BLAST DOG in August 2022, at Iron Bridge in the Pilbara. The agreement provides for the staged use of up to three BLAST DOG sensors, together with associated products, software, and support, over the initial term. This will result in an estimated contract value of A$13 million.

House added: “Our MINEPORTAL™ 3D visualisation software, acquired from DataCloud in September 2021, has been instrumental in demonstrating the value of BLAST DOG to customers,” House said.

He said the initial focus for development of BLAST DOG was copper and bulk metals within Australia and the Americas.

A rigorous assessment defined by global mines with the capacity for more than three drill rigs identified a serviceable addressable market beyond five years of approximately 400 sites, IMDEX says.

With IMDEX focussing on the top 25% of those that were more likely to support the introduction of technologies that are disruptive to existing mining workflows, the assessment had determined that the obtainable market over the same period was about 100 mine sites to support this first phase of growth for the BLAST DOG.

Six commercial prototype trials are planned for the 2023 financial year under the first phase of BLAST DOG development, according to the company.

“The next generation BLAST DOG will incorporate additional sensors, software, and data answer products, and we will expand its application to other commodities and geographies and eventually to underground applications,” House said.

IMDEX focused on ‘find, define and mine’ solutions at MINExpo 2024

IMDEX reveals record quarterly results as new tech developments await deployment