BHP have signed a $1.55 million binding agreement with mineral scanning technology company Orexplore Technologies (OXT), which will see the technology used to scan drill cores at BHP’s Carrapateena mine in South Australia.
Under this agreement Orexplore will deliver site-based drill-core and sample digitisation services for BHP. This work will be focused on value to the operations through multiple OXT solutions unlocking new rock mass characterisation and geometallurgical information to advance the short and medium-term mining and operational planning and decision processes.
The company’s ‘Smart Domaining’ solution, powered through its unique technology, will additionally enable improved orebody knowledge across the deposit to drive improved modelling, with value drivers for downstream mining, processing, and reconciliation outcomes.
Orexplore said that it will work with the operations team to embed new information flows into the site processes and systems as part of the installation of three GeoCore X10® units into the core farm. The team will seek to transform traditional core-logging and analysis processes through augmented logging and advanced machine learning based analysis methods.
‘Think & Act Differently’ (TAD), powered by BHP, is supporting the demonstration of technologies across BHP’s operations including digital core scanning.
Orexplore is creating a unique set of solutions powered by its Geocore X10® core scanning Technology Platform that can deliver unique, novel information sets and reduce risk for customers.
Orexplore said that these solutions are further enabling customers to achieve productivity, development, safety, and sustainability targets as they operate and grow through the global technology, workforce, and energy transitions and advance the sustainability of the mining industry.
The scope of Orexplore’s initial field deployment is scanning and analysis of approximately 15,000m of drill core and samples at Carrapateena with a view to demonstrating the successful integration of these new solutions into the site’s operational workflows.
Orexplore’s Technology Platform comprises its field sensing GeoCore X10® hardware product that rapidly extracts information from drilled core in less than 15 minutes per metre, and its Orexplore Insight® software.
Orexplore said that the software enables remote geological decision makers anywhere in the world to analyse and interpret results to improve ore body knowledge acquisition. This can potentially accelerate decision making across the mining value chain from exploration to operational improvements.
Orexplore’s Managing Director, Brett Giroud, said that Orexplore is proud to be deploying its technology into BHP’s Carrapateena mine and is excited to continue to work with BHP’s TAD team.
“Orexplore is working in close collaboration with the BHP TAD team that is leading the way in the successful adoption of transformational technologies such as the Orexplore technology platform,” Mr Giroud said.
“We are advancing our mission to improve the sustainability of the mining industry, through delivering new technology tools to the field in support of geology and mining professionals transforming their processes and ways of working.
“We seek to achieve this through automating scanning and analysis tasks and delivering unique new insights from drilled core, through machine learning and analysis, to improve exploration, operational, planning and development decision quality and speed.”
Featured image: Carrapateena Mine. Image credit: Orexplore Technologies.
