Commenting on the progress of its technology development, IMDEX MD, Bernie Ridgeway said: "We have an exciting pipeline of new technologies and connected devices to support our growth strategy. The new technologies have the potential to grow our core business by enhancing technical leadership; and extending our capabilities into the larger adjacent mining market, to create an additional non-cyclical revenue stream.
"Our new technologies - including the CoreVIBE, MagHAMMER and Blast Dog - have the ability to deliver important advancements in drilling methods and mining workflows. New deposits are likely to be deeper and undercover, and resource companies are embracing innovation to achieve greater productivity. These new technologies position our Company to benefit from changing industry dynamics."
As announced in January 2018, IMDEX has an exclusive option agreement to acquire Flexidrill and its patent-protected drilling productivity technologies, the CoreVIBE and MagHAMMER.
The company has been progressing the development of these technologies based on strong demand from drilling contractors and resource companies, Imdex undertook successful trials at the company's test site in New Zealand, which concluded that CoreVIBE generated a productivity gain of 33 per cent over conventional coring. These results were also validated by SGS, a leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company.
More recently, IMDEX conducted client trials with the CoreVIBE in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. These trials were successful and supported the results achieved at Imdex's test site.
When discussing the CoreVIBE trials, a field supervisor involved in these trials noted: "I personally believe this technology to be the most significant change to drilling methods in a long time, which is a very significant achievement."
Further trials with another large drilling contractor in Arizona are scheduled for summer 2019 and IMDEX expects to have CoreVIBE units on rent in the current quarter.
Development of MagHAMMER at IMDEX's test site in New Zealand is also progressing well and the company intends to commence client trials in the second half of 2020.
The first iteration of MagHAMMER will be targeting high-speed, pre-collar drilling through barren rock to the coring zone. This eliminates the need for multiple drill rigs at site and accordingly, MagHAMMER will significantly reduce the cost of drilling these targets. Additional development of MagHAMMER will provide geological samples.
On the basis of continued positive development of the drilling productivity technologies and ongoing successful client trials with CoreVIBE, IMDEX anticipates exercising its option to acquire Flexidrill in December 2019.
Imdex's development of mining technologies for drill and blast applications is advancing and remains on track to increase mine to mill efficiency for clients globally. The leveraging of the company's technical sensing capabilities into mining has the potential to provide Imdex with non-cyclical global revenue streams.
The deployment of Blast Dog is commodity agnostic. IMDEX is conducting trials in multiple commodities with global resource companies. To date, successful trials have been undertaken in Nevada in the US and in Queensland, Australia. Additional trials are planned in Chile and Australia in early 2020.
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