Reflecting on a fantastic day at the Understanding Your Mineral Deposit conference at Burlington House last week, Third Planet Exploration Services is grateful to the organisers and to Awale Resources for the opportunity to present “Decoding Multiple Mineralisation Styles Using Geochemistry – Odienné District, Coté D’Ivoire.” Our own Harry Brookes introduced a schematic of the 3PXS workflow to show how we go about unlocking value from geochemical data. He followed by discussing his work on litho-geochemical and alteration classifications and Au distribution downhole at the project. Alignment was drawn with mineral system processes documented in the literature.
It was great to engage with the wider industry. Some take-aways we gained from the day include:
- Jack Bacon (Aberdeen Minerals): explained how the on-site team is tailoring pXRF techniques and combining surface and borehole geophysics to map intrusive pulses at their Arthrath project in Scotland.
- Maarten Haest (MineSense Technologies): demonstrated how their technology can prevent value destruction by real time routing and re-routing of trucks based on grade measurements taken at the mining face, preventing misclassification of ore and waste.
- Merlin Marr-Johnson (Fitzroy Minerals): described key factors in share price appreciation: a) growth (resource expansion); b) momentum (well-funded, active projects); and c) value (low CapEx, strategic metals).
- John Webster: showed how mineralogy is “king” using case studies from KSA – leaching can be greatly affected by organic carbon and tellurides and that very fine-grained mineralisation can result in encapsulation of Au and sulphide mineral mixes, even in the sub 50 micron range.
John’s point (understanding ore mineralogy and textures early) is critical because processing constraints can make or break a project from an economic perspective. This point was particularly poignant for us as Exploration Geochemists.
“Mineralogy is King” mirrors the key conclusion from Harry’s talk: inferred mineralogy using geochemical data can identify potential processing constraints at early project stages. Such knowledge from maximizing data quality and extracting value allows for de-risked decision-making and project optimisation. The earlier you optimise for this, the greater the data are leveraged to add value.
It is always valuable to bring diverse minds together and have these discussions which help further our understanding and gain new perspectives. Thanks again to the sponsors for all their work organising the event at the home of the Geological Society.
IMDEX, Portable PPB Pty Ltd, Alfred H Knight, Evident Industrial, Geotek Limited BARA CONSULTING LTD
If you’d like any more information on any of our services, or assistance with enhancing the impact of your geochemical data, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
