From minesweeping to mine sites

A Queensland business that uses sensors to detect unexploded bombs in former conflict zones in South-East Asia and Europe is now using its technology to help iron ore miners find pieces of equipment that have broken off in stockpiles.

Gap Explosive Ordnance Detection director Stephen Billings told Business News the company had done work for CITIC Pacific Mining at the Sino Iron magnetite project, and for Downer Group at the Karara magnetite project.

“Our technology detects metal,” Dr Billings said.

“Originally we developed it for finding unexploded bombs and projectiles.

“We realised the mining industry had a very similar problem, where they lose these GETS (ground engaging tools) or bits of mining equipment in their stockpiles.

“When they’re digging for ore, they often break the teeth off excavators, or sometimes when they’re drilling they lose the drill bit.

“They tend to do a lot of damage when they get fed into a crusher or other things.”

The pieces of metal that break off could weight up to 200 kilograms, he said.

Dr Billings said if a miner was aware it had lost these chunks of steel in its stockpile, it would generally have to spread the stockpile out extremely thinly, about 30 centimetres deep, in order to locate the pieces to avoid having machinery damaged.

Gap EOD’s method could scan at depths of up to 3.5 metres, he said, making the process much more economic.

For example, searching through a stockpile at Karara that may have taken months took only five days with Gap EOD’s equipment, lowering labour costs and the impact on shipments.

The Gap EOD business is a joint venture between Brisbane-based Bridgewater, which is controlled by Dr Billings, and fellow Brisbane company Gap Geophysics, which has a branch in Kalgoorlie.

Gap Geophysics had been focused on minerals exploration, Dr Billings said.

“I started talking to my joint venture partner. I realised the type of equipment they’ve developed for minerals would be very applicable for finding unexploded ordnance,” he said.

“That’s how we got started working together.”

A colleague at the CSIRO then put Gap EOD in touch with Citic, which had lost teeth in a magnetite stockpile. Gap has been back to Sino Iron about eight times working through the stockpile.

Now, about 25 per cent of the company’s revenue comes from the mining industry, while 75 per cent is through explosives detection, Dr Billings said.

“We’re trying to grow that (mining) side of the business,” he said.