Modern Mining February 2021

CRITICAL METALS

exploration and drilling. You can’t have a mine with- out exploration and drilling.” A senior executive of a global mining company sees it similarly. “We need to get to the point where society views mining as necessary for the wellbeing of its own existence,” he said. Optimising drilling IMDEX is developing drilling optimisation technolo- gies – IMDEX COREVIBETM, IMDEX XTRACTATM, and IMDEX MAGHAMMERTM – that will provide significant productivity, safety and environmental benefits. Dr Lawie says that, as an example, a tier-one min- ing client was planning a five-year drill programme involving 25 drill rigs to explore for critical metals. “If our technology was all available it would prob- ably shorten that to two years, delivering enormous financial benefits and enabling them to make deci- sions sooner on either extending their drill programs in specific areas or moving on,” Dr Lawie. Development of the IMDEX tools should be well advanced by the end of 2021. IMDEX has signed a joint development agreement with a tier-one mining company to fast-track development of the IMDEX MAGHAMMER for commercial use. It uses a new hybrid drilling technique, which combines rotary diamond drilling with fluid driven percussive drilling to achieve higher penetration rates compared to conventional coring. MAGHAMMER will become more important as exploration drilling programs head under cover and at depth. Dr Lawie says that as well as optimising exploration programmes, IMDEX technologies and tools would improve overall rock knowledge, pro- viding reliable data sooner from multiple sources to enable companies to make more informed decisions. “This reduces the risk of establishing mines. Because of the amount of drilling and the data it will produce, there will be a high degree of confidence in mine design,” he says. “At the moment, a lot of mines never reach name- plate capacity because the geological model was not well understood.” Dr i l l i ng as i de, Dr Lawi e sa i d IMDEX’s

award-winning IMDEX BlastDOG technology would play a vital part in mine planning and production. IMDEX BlastDOGTM i s a semi -autono-

mously deployed system for log- g i ng ma t e r i a l proper t ies and blast hole char- acteristics at high spatial density across

the bench and mine and is commodity agnostic. “It will allow precision mining so that deposits that are sub-economic may well become economic to process,” Dr Lawie says. “It also means the processing intensity can increase so there is less waste, less tailings, less water used, and greater overall efficiencies.” As the IEA report said, there is no single story- line to the future, but if the carbon neutral by 2050 pledges are to be met, a lot a needs to happen – and quickly. It won’t all be about key minerals and metals, but they will play an important part, and the processes for finding and mining them may have to improve just as quickly to meet rising global expectations of a decarbonised world. 

Beryllium is one of the minerals targeted by Critical Metals.

Key takeaways  Reaching net zero emissions globally by 2050 would demand a set of dramatic actions over the next 10 years  Reliable supplies of critical minerals and metals will be essential, not only for the predicted increase in demand for commercial and residential bat- tery storage worldwide, but electric vehicles and the lithium-ion batteries that will power them  US$1-trillion of investment would be needed in key energy transition met- als – aluminium, cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium – over the next 15 years to meet the growing demands of decarbonisation  Copper – which hit an eight-year high of US$US8 103 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange in early January 2021 – has entered a bull market, predicting a 12-month price forecast of US$US9 500 a tonne

February 2021  MODERN MINING  29