Swick signs first commercial technology agreement

Swick Mining Services has announced the first commercial agreement for use of its Orexplore mineral scanning technology, which has been developed over the past seven years.

Orexplore’s GeoCore X10 mineral scanning machine, formally launched two months ago, allows for real-time, onsite testing that is quick and non-destructive in comparison to current core analysis techniques.

Its first user will be Saturn Metals, which will utilise the technology to scan core from its Apollo Hill gold project near Leonora.

Swick managing director Kent Swick is confident in the new technology’s ability to change the way mineral scanning is done, using whole of core data that is a vast improvement on the multiple weeks delay currently used in destructive chemical testing.

“We have seen good levels of interest across a wide spectrum of potential clients who have been trialling the product since it was introduced,” Mr Swick said.

“Many of those are now deciding how to use the technology in their current workflows and we are confident a number of proposals will be converted into laboratory scanning agreements soon.”

Mr Swick said he expected clients to run Orexplore in parallel with conventional processes for a while, but over time the non-destructive cost-effective technology would prevail.

Orexplore laboratory services agreements are recurring after three month terms in which clients can scan core data when necessary, receiving a 20 percent discount on core scanned after the first 1,000 metres.

The new machine allows for tomographic analysis on structure, composition, texture, density and mineral composition with a scanning capacity of 3600m per month. It has interactive 3D manipulation of the tomographic data and the ability to reduce sampling error by increasing core volume without the destruction cost of current core analysis.

Swick has spent $9.5 million since 2013 on Orexplore, including the acquisition of minority shareholders’ stakes in 2017 for $2.9 million.