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Cutting-edge exploration and mining technology – supercharging a smarter, more efficient future
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Mining technology companies like Plotlogic, Verbrec and SensOre are taking advantage of the growing push for the resources and mining sector to fast track its adoption of new sustainable and efficient technologies.
Mining companies are under a global magnifying glass. Consumers are demanding sustainability, not only from manufacturers but along the entire supply chain, from the moment the mineral is found to when it appears in the products they are purchasing.
Rapid advances in technology innovation, including automation, digitization and electrification, are fundamentally changing how the mining sector operates. These three companies are seeking to reshape the sector from exploration right through to mining and production via innovative software solutions.
Already working with some of the world’s largest miners including BHP, Glencore and Anglo American, Plotlogic positions itself as a global leader in mining optimisation with its technology rapidly being deployed across Australia and internationally.
Plotlogic’s proprietary technology OreSense® combines hyperspectral, LiDAR and RGB imaging with artificial intelligence (AI), fusing huge amounts of data collected by a range of sophisticated sensors to produce extremely accurate, real time automated results. Their products range from scanning of core and blasthole samples to light vehicle mounted scanners that create digital maps of open pit and underground mine faces, draw points and stockpiles.
The deep tech start-up enables miners to maximise productivity and increase output and mine profitability, while also reducing human exposure to in-mine hazards and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. It is experiencing huge demand as the industry searches for solutions that makes mining more accurate.
Plotlogic’s technology offers miners a potential solution for more efficiently and sustainably extracting minerals that are essential for a greener economy (such as copper, lithium and nickel), as well as providing support for the iron ore industry to operate more sustainably.
In a recent interview with CEO Dr Andrew Job “Mining should be able to generate the resources society needs without harming the environment. Our goal is to work with our customers to use AI and automation to deliver the future of natural resources – one that benefits both society and the industry.”
Another company at the forefront of digital transformation delivering significant operational efficiencies in the mining sector is engineering, infrastructure and training service provider Verbrec Limited (ASX: VBC).
Verbrec leveraged its expertise in mining control systems and developed a proprietary stockpile monitoring software, StacksOn™ which boosts the efficiency of mining operations by tracking properties such as grade, orebody origin, and “time since stacked” in a virtual 3D stockpile. The technology has been developed and refined for more than 10 years and provides miners the unique ability to monitor inventory, stockpiling and cashflow.
Verbrec’s stockpile technology has also attracted the likes of big majors, including BHP, which is using Verbrec’s internally developed StacksOn™ software at its supersized Western Australian iron ore mines to optimise their operations.
Disrupting the conventional exploration stage of the mining cycle is ASX-listed SensOre Limited (ASX: S3N), which uses proprietary target generation technology, vast geoscience data and geological expertise to uncover economically viable mineral deposits efficiently, sustainably and at pace.
Using a combination of big data and AI machine learning, SensOre’s technologies are designed to advance the way companies integrate, interrogate and analyse geoscience data to better understand where and how to explore for minerals.
The ultimate aim is an increase in discovery rates and the financial and environmental benefits that accompany it.
SensOre chairman Robert Peck said: “SensOre is well-positioned to benefit from two global trends that are reshaping the mining technology sector.
“The first is the global energy transition which is driving the need to decarbonise the mining sector, while at the same time increasing demand for battery minerals to support renewable energy.
“The second is geopolitical tensions generating new interest in securing critical minerals supply chains.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Verbrec a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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