Projects Seeking Sponsorship
Project Number: P1061B
Amira Project Manager: Adele Seymon
Overview:
Inspired by the highly successful West African Exploration Initiative (WAXI) and positive results from the first stage, the SAXI program is progressing to the next stage. The overall aim of the program is to enhance the exploration potential of North-East South America through an integrated program of research and data gathering into the “anatomy” of the Guiana Shield and neighbouring terranes.
Key motivations for undertaking this initiative are to assist exploration companies in focusing their activities in areas of maximum prospectivity; help local Geological Surveys and Universities in their role of collecting and providing pre-competitive data and information; and to train local geoscientists.
Benefits from sponsoring this program include:
- Access to all data collated at local and regional scales
- Opportunity to attend seminars, workshops and training courses
- Opportunity to define future research directions in the region
Project Number: P1194
Amira Project Manager: John Visser
Overview:
The processing costs of any operation are significant, and more so if there is a grinding stage involved. Therefore the removal of any waste post the primary crusher and prior to the process plant will improve the bottom-line of any resources based operation. This technology has the capability of removing waste from the plant feed stream efficiently and effectively.
The Magnetic Field Sorting (MFS) project is focused on the development of a dry 10 t/h MFS proof-of-concept prototype (eleven patents in place) ore sorter capable of separating magnetic, paramagnetic, non-magnetic and diamagnetic materials into separate streams. This project will ascertain the amenability for upgradeability by MFS of a broad range of sponsors’ samples, establish the minimum necessary inter-particle distance for maximising MFS throughput of the ore feed of a nominal 3:1 particle size ratio, and demonstrate the continuous operation of the MFS technology by deploying the 10 t/h prototype on a sponsor’s site.
The benefits from sponsoring this project include:
- Determining that the magnetic response and magnetic susceptibility of your ores to the MFS technology demonstrates that the technology is capable of removing waste from the plant feed stream
- Having an opportunity to be involved in determining the project scope of work
- Having the opportunity to test the prototype unit on your operational site
- Being one of the first operators to take advantage of the benefits arising from this technology
Project Number: P1208
Amira Project Manager: Richard Macoun
Overview:
The aim of this project is to develop and implement Interoperability Standards for Mine Planning, Mine Scheduling and Execution so that equipment and applications for mine operations becomes “plug and play”. Building on the University of Western Australia (UWA) I4.0 ERDi Test Lab, this project will enable an offsite test laboratory to evaluate efficacy of interoperability of technology without disrupting ongoing mining activities. The project will utilise the existing Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) structures and systems to implement the standards.
The motivation for this project is to develop a vastly improved mining operating model with reduced costs and more efficient exploitation of opportunities through real time data exchange between applications, the Digital Mine.
Benefits from sponsoring this program include:
- Early awareness of standards reducing dead-end technology investments
- Non-disruptive testing of sponsor applications
- Validation and certification of applications from vendors, including those traditionally outside mining
- Upskilling of sponsor workforce
Project Number: P1234
Amira Project Manager: Fabian Goddard
Overview:
The aim of the Spent Pot Liner (SPL) Sustainable Product Development project is to convert aluminium smelting hazardous Spent Pot Liner or Spent Cell Liner waste product into safe, stable, non-toxic material. This 3-year project delivers value by;
- Re-purposing SPL by developing revenue generating by-products for feedstock into new and existing downstream processes
- Reducing cost of SPL storage, transportation, treatment and disposal
- Reducing ongoing liabilities associated with current SPL management practices
- Promoting the concept of circular economy to benefit the environment, assist other industries and add to a company’s ESG, CSR and social license credentials, while addressing ICMM’s 10 Principles to support Sustainable Development.
The project aims to make SPL 100% inert, by developing a process that recovers hydrogen, methane and ammonia as commercially viable products, whereas gases like hydrogen sulphide, phosphegne and phosphene will be neutralized in process. Flourides and cyanide will be treated chemically and converted to suitable products that are useable and sale-able.
By-product generation includes Carbon fraction, Aluminium Salts, Refractory Materials, Aluminium Metal, Hydrogen Gas, Nitrogen Gas and producing an inert product that has no limitations on transportation which can be widely accepted in cement, refractory brick and steel industry.
Benefits from sponsoring this program include:
- Major sponsor companies will receive
- Detailed analysis of their SPL waste,
- Pilot scale plant preliminary conceptual design, made specifically to suit their needs and recover these commercially valuable gases
- Minor Sponsors will have access to basic process flow to recover these gases and make their SPL inert
Project Number: P1202
Amira Project Manager: Adele Seymon
Overview:
This project aims to develop new tools that facilitate cost-effective exploration programs and resource assessments for porphyry, epithermal, skarn and other ore deposit types at the regional, district, and near-mine scales. The research team will provide new and refined geochemical and geological tools for fertility assessments to establish whether a tenement contains a significant mineral resource (i.e. – how large is the resource in this district?) and to ensure that deposits are discovered quicker and at less cost by reducing the amount of drilling required for discovery (vectoring – how far, how deep and in what direction?).
These tools will be designed to ensure cost-effective exploration through implementation early in an exploration program, allowing the presence, location and potential size of porphyry, epithermal, skarn and other resources to be determined rapidly. Research outcomes will be pertinent to exploration at a variety of scales, from belt through camp and district to near-mine.
Benefits from sponsoring this program include:
- New and improved geochemical and geological techniques for screening porphyry, epithermal, skarn, Archean gold and potentially other deposit types from other hydrothermal magmatic and metamorphic events that have affected green and white rock environments at the district and camp scales
- Bathymeters for focusing exploration in lithocaps
- Vectors, discriminators and fertility indicators that operate at various scales in diverse environments
- New tools for opportunity recognition
- Develop robust workflows for ore body characterization and domain definition
Project Number: P1206
Amira Project Manager: Adele Seymon
Overview:
Whilst terrains conducive to the discovery of large Tier 1 porphyry-Cu deposits remain the primary focus for many mining companies, there is an increasing awareness that belts such as the Central African Copperbelt (CACB) which contain higher grade sediment-hosted Cu mineralisation, can deliver high quality exploration opportunities. However, there is also the realisation that exploration in these relatively mature belts is becoming increasingly difficult as we explore in areas of shallow cover. Building upon the porphyry-focused outcomes of the green rock vectoring and RIMs studies, a similar investigation into the mineral chemistry of sediment-hosted copper systems is now recommended.
Benefits from sponsoring this program include:
- Ability to recognize whether exploration activities are focused in a productive aquifer
- Distinguish vectors to mineralisation in sediment-hosted environments.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Don’t miss out on upcoming events, subscribe today.
