In risk-averse mining sector, innovation begins with taking the guesswork out of sorting rock – by Peter Koven (National Post – September 30, 2014)

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The mining industry is not always synonymous with innovation. Extraction methods have been entrenched for decades, and many companies are happy to stick with the same mining and milling processes that are standard across the sector.

“There’s a monolithic barrier to anybody trying to do anything new, because everybody’s the same and everybody thinks the same,” says Andrew Bamber, chief executive of MineSense Technologies Ltd.

Mr. Bamber, 43, believes there is an untapped billion-dollar market for innovation and new technologies within the broader industry. With Vancouver-based MineSense’s latest invention, a unique ore-handling technology for optimizing metal recovery, Mr. Bambler hopes to help prove his case.

The technology has nothing to do with finding new mines. It is about identifying valuable ore in existing mines that he believes companies are foolishly throwing away. Conversely, it is about making sure companies do not waste time and money processing low-quality ore.

When mining firms design their mine plans, they spend hours poring over the drill holes on a property and carefully assigning value to blocks of material in the ground. Rock that gets assigned a high value goes to the mill for processing, and low-value material gets shipped to the waste pile.

Mr. Bamber says the mine plan is akin to a strawberry cake. “We know there’s strawberries in it, and we’ve got a rough idea where some are because two holes might hit a strawberry. And we extrapolate in between to say what the rest of the massive cake looks like to define the value.”

This is incredibly inefficient, he says. Drill holes can be spaced far apart, and he does not think they provide nearly enough insight on the ore. Moreover, materials can shift when companies are blasting to get the rock out of the ground, making the original model even more inaccurate.

To address this problem, MineSense has designed sensors that integrate right into mining shovels, scoops and belt conveyers. The sensors monitor the ore grades and alert companies about whether the rock should be sent to the mill or the waste pile. Essentially, the sensors are supposed to create certainty where many companies are making educated guesses.

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