加拿大Novamera等合作研发外科手术式采矿生产概念

Novamera公司 和 OZ Minerals公司签署了一份谅解备忘录，两家公司共同对外宣称，这份备忘录的签署是为达成一个相互交流和沟通的基础性框架，从而为双方之间建立一个“合作技术创新关系”提供支撑。

两家公司表示，他们都希望挖掘那些尚未开发的矿产资源项目的经济潜力，延长矿业开发项目的矿山服务年限，并为全球市场供应更充足的矿产资源，而且保证实现一种负责任的、公平的和可持续的供应模式。为了实现这些目标，这个合作伙伴企业计划会推动一些工作，这包括但不限于：

（1）OZ Minerals公司加入了 加拿大矿业创新委员会（CMIC） 的矿业企业联盟，并且在2022年的晚些时候，在该公司的各个矿业开发项目区域中对Novamera公司研发的一种 近钻孔成像技术（NBIT） 进行测试；

（2）对于在OZ Minerals公司的矿业开发项目组合中应用Novamera公司的新技术的前景进行评估；

（3）对于潜在的矿业开发项目机遇，两家公司将开展联合评估工作；

（4）两家公司共同开展对外宣传工作，其中重点推介与Novamera公司的新技术相关的生产运营经验和价值理念。

在签署这份备忘录之前，Novamera公司于9月被提名OZ Minerals公司倡导的“可扩展和可兼容技术研发”的矿业技术团队中的7家公司之一，该团队致力于联合制定机动灵活的矿山设计方案。该技术挑战项目是由OZ Minerals公司、Inspire Resources公司和Undered公司共同倡导的。

Novamera公司总裁兼首席执行官Dustin Angelo表示，“自2021年9月以来，我们一直与OZ Minerals公司的Think & ActDifferently团队开展合作，针对矿业行业中可扩展技术和兼容性技术研发的挑战开展了科研攻关。在这段时间里，我们都意识到，我们几家公司有着共同的目标和理念，无论是在矿业行业的发展方向上，还是在应该在哪些地方进行经济效益潜力挖掘方面。这份谅解备忘录将使我们能够集中资源，开始利用我们自身的核心竞争力，为我们团队中每家公司创造出巨大的经济效益。”

OZ Minerals公司转型业务总经理Katie Hulmes补充表示，“ Novamera公司研发的技术可以实现一种外科手术式的采矿生产。这种新的采矿生产模式有可能实现一种更高运营效率的矿山开发方式，例如更少的废弃物、水资源、能源消耗以及更小的矿区占地面积。 我们期待着与Novamera公司开展合作，这也是作为加拿大矿业创新委员会中矿业企业联盟和各种内部开发项目的组成部分。”

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通过这种外科手术式采矿生产模式，Novamera公司已经开始将石油和天然气行业中已经验证的钻探技术和成像技术结合起来，并且将这一组合技术应用于窄矿脉矿山开发项目，从而为窄矿脉矿体（这种矿体具有陡倾的倾角）的开采生产提供技术手段并提高经济效益。此外，这种新模式还减少了现代矿业开发项目的矿区占地面积，从而降低了矿山生产对周边社区所造成的影响。

2021年，Novamera公司在Romeo矿和Juliet矿（这两座矿山是Signal金矿公司所持有的，位于加拿大的纽芬兰地区）对这项新技术开展了一次概念性的验证测试工作，这次测试旨在对整个外科手术式采矿生产系统和作业流程进行验证，其中 这个系统和作业流程是由3个环节组成的。3个环节包括：使用金刚石岩心钻机完成一个导向孔的钻探作业，并且通过电缆上的岩心桶将一个成像设备下入；使用一个大直径钻头，根据成像设备所生成的轨迹钻探至指定深度，并且采集岩屑样品；对钻孔进行回填作业。

Novamera and OZ Minerals to take surgical mining concept forward with new MoU

Novamera Inc and OZ Minerals have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that, they say, provides a basis of common understanding to support the creation of a “collaborative innovation relationship” between the parties.

The two companies share a desire to unlock value in stranded mineral assets, transform the mining project lifecycle and enable the world’s raw material needs to be met responsibly, equitably and sustainably, they said. To that end, the partnership plans to engage in certain activities including, but not limited to, the following:

Participation by OZ Minerals in the Canada Mining Innovation Council (CMIC) Consortium of Mining Companies to trial Novamera’s near borehole imaging tool (NBIT) at various project sites later in 2022;

Assess the potential of deploying Novamera’s technology within OZ Minerals’ project portfolio;

Collaboratively evaluate potential project opportunities; and

Co-develop collateral to articulate the operational experience and value proposition associated with Novamera’s technology.

The agreement follows Novamera being named as one of seven companies in OZ Minerals’ ‘Scalable and Adaptable’ mining cohort to work together to explore flexible mine design, in September. The challenge was run as a partnership between OZ Minerals’ Think & Act Differently Incubator, Canada-based Inspire Resources and Unearthed.

Dustin Angelo, President and CEO of Novamera, said: “Since last September, we have been working with the Think & Act Differently team on the Scalable & Adaptable Mining Challenge. Over that period of time, we realised we share common goals and ideas on the direction of the mining industry and where to unlock value. The MoU will allow us to focus our efforts collectively and begin to leverage our individual core competencies to create a tremendous amount of value for each of our companies.”

Katie Hulmes, General Manager Transformation at OZ Minerals, added: “The Novamera technology can enable surgical mining. This approach has the potential to operate with less waste, water, energy and a smaller footprint. We look forward to working with Novamera as part of the CMIC Consortium and various internal projects.”

Novamera, through surgical mining, has set out to adapt a combination of drilling and imaging techniques already proven in the oil & gas industry for the narrow-vein mining sector, providing the technical and economical means to mine steeply dipping narrow-vein orebodies with the reduced footprint disturbance modern mining operations require.

Last year it carried out a proof of concept trial of the technology at the Signal Gold-owned Romeo and Juliet deposit in Newfoundland, Canada, which was designed to test the entire surgical mining system and process, which is made up of three steps. This includes drilling a pilot hole with a standard NQ-sized diamond core rig and sending imaging tools down through the core barrel on wireline; bringing in a large-diameter drill to drill to depth following the trajectory provided by the imaging tool and extracting the cuttings; and backfilling the holes thereafter.

Angelo told IM recently that the company had assembled a consortium of companies looking to co-fund a field trial of the company’s minimum viable product version of the NBIT (the version used at Romeo and Juliet, pictured), which is the key enabling technology within surgical mining, through CMIC.

来源：中国地质调查局地学文献中心

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