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MINING SERVICES
MInInG seRVIces Guiding the flow of the avalanche

Q & A
Q A of incoming data
&

Capital Limited (Capital) have recently announced their first major load
After a successful career with Olympus, Marcus Lake
has branched out and launched Phoenix Mining
and haul contract with Centamin at its Sukari Gold Mine in Egypt, on top
Technologies. Paydirt caught up with Lake recently to
of very strong 2020 results. Paydirt caught up with Brian Rudd, Executive
find out which trends he sees as shaping and changing
Director to discuss the company’s recent successes.
the mining sector in the next decade.

Pure Storage’s FlashBlade technology
PD: The Sukari contract is a step-change Sukari contract and we are optimistic where we have operations in Mali, offers companies an efficient, effective
Marcus Lake is managing director of
Phoenix Mining Technologies
for Capital, what does it entail? that some of the opportunities we are Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, way of capturing, collating and storing
PD: How have mining PD: What is Phoenix distributing ith hundreds and thousands of sen- the data, collecting it and then collating it data ready for use
working on will lead to further contract
technologies changed in the last at the moment? Nigeria and most recently, Guinea. Wsors on even a standard mine, data and there is also the cost of actually stor-
BR: The contract is a game-changer
We have well-established support
for Capital, it is 120Mt open pit waste wins this year. capture, processing and storage is loom- ing that data using public cloud.”
10 years? PD: Has there been a favourite ing as a critical component in resources To counter those limitations, Pure Stor- are working with a large miner who uses
workshops and offices in Ivory Coast,
mining contract providing load and ML: Our main client is Geotek [UK]. They Pure Storage’s flash-based technology to
PD: Your underlying business delivered
Mauritania and Mali and a growing
ML: In my view innovation over the last have been very successful in the soft rock mining story that you have operations in the coming decade. age has developed its FlashBlade tech- run everything from automated haulage
haul and ancillary services over a four-
strong results in 2020 also
nology which can handle tens of billions
The mining sector has undergone rapid
network of laboratories, including the
10 years has been slow. Yes, the current [petroleum and academia] markets and are followed? digitisation in the last five years with infor- of files and objects. to process control systems.
year period. It will add revenues of
BR: Yes, despite the challenges we all
available technologies have become faster now pivoting into the mining industry. We most recently acquired MSALABS mation being captured at every level of an “We have been working with a Perth- “This is where the simplicity of the
circa $235 – 260 million over that time
ELAM laboratory in Yamoussoukro
faced from COVID-19, we had a very
and more accurate, but we haven’t really have signed a global exclusive agreement for ML: I would have to say that the most operation, from underground jumbos, to based group which collects a lot of in- technology becomes more important be-
and is the largest contract award since
in Ivory Coast. We can provide
seen anything new in the market; something the sales and marketing within the mining beneficial project that I have worked on haul truck brake pads and canteen sup- dependent seismic data,” Jobbins said. cause it has lower power requirements
strong year across our business, with
our company has been established – a
that the entire mining industry looks at vertical for their analytical equipment. Their was with Gold Fields Ltd. If there was one plies. Mining companies are producing “By leveraging FlashBlade technology and very few moving parts. Being able
comprehensive and responsive
revenues up 18% over 2019. Many of
real milestone for us. As our first major
and says “wow we need that”. We do now new product is the BoxScan – a multi- company that pioneered the application billions of data points every day, but many to process data at incredible speed, that to replace parts with a remote worker on
support from these facilities across
our key metrics also improved over
load and haul contract it also adds
one of those sites becomes important.
have multiple scanning technologies and sensor device combining Olympus pXRF, and use of pXRF, it would have to be Gold are still grappling to how to take advan- group has found problems around ingest-
the region and have rigs ready for
the previous year, with rig utilisation
substantial scale to our new mining ASD Terra Spec, magnetic susceptibility and tage of much of this data. ing data were taken away, and they were The miner has better logistics to get com-
automation technologies and in addition to also up 9% on an expanded rig fleet. Fields. Gold Fields’ geoscientists at the
quick mobilisation.
division and provides us with greater high-resolution line scan photography. We “Many organisations in the resources able to do it at 17 GB/second, 30 times ponents to these sites better than any IT
this, over the past few years we have seen We’ve been awarded a number of time understood the limitations of pXRF company could.”
revenue diversification. We were have also been engaged by Mining Plus to PD: What is 2021 looking like for Capital? sector struggle to hold onto data and put faster than other technologies.”
a strong move towards data science; thus regarding actual gold analysis. Thus, Jobbins said Pure Storage’s mantra of
FlashBlade also allows users to simpli-
new contracts over the course of the
also awarded an extended drilling assist with the development of an innovation they worked around these for analytical it to use. They capture and store it but fy the cleansing and preparation of data, reducing complexity meant it could pro-
innovative software packages that can
are not too sure how to process,” Mark
BR: Trading conditions for Capital are
year and we now have a portfolio of
contract that substantially expands and technology strategy. solutions required for gold exploration. It Jobbins, vice president and field chief meaning the process of data sharing is vide a high level of technology innovation
provide customers with a useful derivative
ten long-term contracts, which are
extremely positive at the moment and
information from the current data sources Later this year we will be the global partner was this company which really provided technology officer for Pure Storage Asia sped up. while keeping it incredibly simple to use,
our scope and scale of existing drilling
we are optimistic of another strong
mine-site based and provide stable
they have. Phoenix Mining Technologies for the new low-level gold technology out of this technology with the foothold it now Pacific told Paydirt. “It may take 12-18 “Using advanced analytics to do that creating greater operational efficiency
operations on site. We are excited
revenues. We have also seen our
year in 2021 – the COVID pandemic
is taking the most innovative products, Perth, Portable Parts per Billion (PPPB). enjoys. We are pleased to still be working months to do something useful with that can give companies a glimpse into data and effectiveness even in core business
to build on our relationship with
remains the only caveat as it
housing them under our agency and allo
Centamin further with this contract, wing non-drilling businesses, including with some of these people on Phoenix’s data and that is staggeringly long. Many almost in real time, instead of waiting 6-12 applications.
continues to create some uncertainty
customers to choose their digitisation PD: What has been the most new suite of technologies. companies are looking to put the data to months to make what could be business- He said the company’s DataHub tech-
MSALABS, our laboratory business,
where we have now been working
strategy. popular piece of equipment you PD: What will the mining sector greater use and use it almost in real time. critical decisions.” nology could also allow companies to
and restrictions in travel and supplies
and MSM, our fledgling maintenance
break down the silos which form over-use
since 2005.
The amount of data will continue to grow
This speeding up of data interpretation
movement. However, as I mentioned
business, deliver increasing revenue
PD: This is the first major win for your ested
PD: Is there enough being inv have promoted to industry during look like in the next few years? exponentially and those who can harness becomes particularly important in remote of information.
earlier, the tendering market remains
contributions throughout 2020.
“With those large datasets, it becomes
locations. Jobbins said the FlashBlade in-
the power of that data will be the compa-
by mining companies in R&D? your career? strong, the gold price is still sitting nies which will thrive.” frastructure also gave miners benefits in more important to share information ef-
mining business – is there more to come?
PD: Is West Africa still a focus for Capital? ML: I believe that the we are at a major The constraint usually comes in captur- this regard. fectively through the different stages of
close to historical highs - which is
BR: The tendering market is very ML: This is my 13th year within the mining
ML: Mining companies for a long time have BR: Yes, absolutely. Since late 2017, turning point for the entire industry. There ing and correctly storing the data. Jobbins “The resources industry offers unique the use,” Jobbins said. “Silos are usu-
good for us as approximately 90% of
strong at the moment, and we are technology business, for most of this time has been a lot of chat about the digitisation said public cloud technology had limita- environmental challenges, but companies ally driven by applications or storage; it is
had R&D departments and I believe that the
our business is from the sector - and
we have been strategically shifting our
dollars spent has been on [automating] the I was involved with Olympus and their and automation of this business. This tions when dealing with massive data have taken advantage and are putting our probably the same underlying data being
working on a number of opportunities
analytical equipment, pXRF and pXRD. So
our recent contract wins, combined
across all of our business units that geographic focus to take advantage of talk is warranted as we are one of the sets. technology into remote mines in the most used across different applications.
trucks and shovels side of the business. Not
the growth opportunities in the region. s
with our existing long-term contracts,
enough money has been spent on extraction naturally I am going to say that the pXRF ha last industries to modernise. With new “There are constraints about ingesting demanding of conditions,” he said. “We “Through our DataHub, companies are
are progressing well. Our new mining
Approximately half of our fleet are cess
provide a solid platform to support
technologies. The orebody in the ground become the ultimate technological suc technologies, in addition to the future able to hold the same information on the
division started in late 2019, we now
same technology and allows for different
further growth during the year.
now located throughout West Africa,
is a company’s asset and I believe this is story during my time. In all seriousness, technologies, we will see people’s roles groups to share the information between
have two contracts including the new
since starting my career in the business
where more R&D money should be spent. changing. Geoscientists will be able to the different applications and stages.
R&D and innovation within the technology we have seen pXRF go from a tool that was be scientists again, instead of project Simplifying how that data is shared be-
space is being funded and developed by discounted by a fair number of industry managers and there will be many more comes important. It means companies
The Sukari
the companies that make this equipment professionals to a must-have analytical new jobs created in data science and can focus teams onto higher value work
instrument that is now used within all
contract is a
and software. They are then delivering new sectors of our business. It is somewhat of a technology. My point of view, from the rather than working out how to export,
products, releasing them into the market technology side, is that the future is bright copy, re-import and protect this data.
game-changer
and measuring the uptake. natural fit for us to be working with Geotek and believe this augers well for the entire They can get into using it much quicker,
for Capital. and PPPB. We have an ongoing commercial minerals extraction business. instead of securing it.”
relationship with Olympus, as both of these
technologies require a Vanta pXRF. Technology such as seismic is generating billions of data points – Dominic Piper
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