Swick Mining Services has appointed Jason Marinko as Managing Director of Swick’s Mineral Technology Business as a key step along the pathway to demerge Swick’s Drilling Business and Mineral Technology Business, the latter of which will operate under the new company name of Orexplore Technologies Ltd.
Marinko is an experienced public company CEO, Chairman and Company Director, with expertise in the technology and investment banking industries and a proven track record in leading technologies to commercialisation, Swick says. This includes a stint as Executive Chairman of geospatial imagery company Spookfish, where he oversaw its ASX-listing and growth before leading negotiations with North America’s largest aerial imagery and data analytics company, EagleView Technologies Inc, that resulted in a successful takeover of Spookfish.
He also has extensive corporate finance experience as associate director at Perth-based firms Azure Capital and Euroz Securities.
Marinko complements Orexplore’s highly credible management team, which has expert capabilities covering the whole breadth of the business from theoretical physics, manufacturing, software engineering to operations, the company says.
Swick Managing Director, Kent Swick, said: “We are extremely pleased to announce Jason as Managing Director of Orexplore Technologies. I believe the wealth of experience that he brings in managing listed companies, combined with his extensive technology and financial expertise both in Australia and overseas, will provide significant benefits to Orexplore as it moves to demerge from Swick and beyond.
“Swick has made significant progress along the Orexplore journey since our first investment in 2013 initially funding R&D, consolidating the ownership to 100% in 2017 and continuing to support Orexplore to develop the technology it has today. Orexplore is progressing its commercialisation pathway and can now move to address a large potential market for the product. I am confident Jason will be able to navigate the opportunity that lies ahead and look forward to working alongside him.”
Marinko commented: “I am excited to be leading Orexplore’s highly talented team in Australia and Sweden into the next stage of its growth. A decade of pioneering research, development and investment in Orexplore’s unique and disruptive technology that enables fast, accurate, three dimensional non-destructive core analysis has created significant opportunities in the brownfield drilling market that are ready to be realised and I look forward to driving its commercialisation and delivering value to Swick shareholders.”
Commercialisation of Orexplore has gathered momentum with an agreement secured in August 2020 with St Barbara Limited. Under this agreement, approximately 1,500 m/mth of core will be scanned over a six-month period at the Gwalia mine in Leonora, for a total value of approximately A$700,000 ($505,724). The GeoCore X10 instruments will be mobilised to site during this month, with Orexplore Technologies working towards ensuring the value is extracted from the rich 3D data set and adding long-term value beyond the initial six-month period, it said.