Now in May, the Swedish-Australian company Orexplore launches the world's first fully-featured digital drilling cores laboratory - GeoCore X10. The product, which has won a RedDot Industrial Design Award, analyzes the elements and minerals contained in the drill core while watching the stone's structure in 3D. What took weeks of expensive chemical laboratory analysis can now be done while drilling, which will revolutionize both ore and ore depletion.
With Orexplore's innovative equipment, the world's geologists get a new and exciting tool for finding new discoveries as well as streamlining the existing mines. The opportunity to take a drill bit, and immediately see what it contains, is completely groundbreaking. By visually looking at the structure of the stone, geologists can form an idea of how the bedrock has been created in different phases over time, how minerals are distributed in the stone and how valuable the ore body really is.
- In Sweden, we have hundreds of years of mining experience while we are skilled in technology and IT. Against this background, it is perhaps not so strange that the GeoCore X10 was created right here, says Kevin Rebenius, CEO, and founder of Orexplore.
The entire mining industry, a conservative industry, is now facing a revolution in digitalization and the use of IT. And Sweden is the country leading the development.
GeoCore X10 is the result of over 20 years of X-ray research, algorithm development and sensor technology. Despite the advanced technology, the goal has been to design a product that is so simple that it can be used by anyone. Moreover, the measurement is non-destructive, which means that you do not need to prepare the drill cores beforehand.
The digital data produced with the equipment can be analyzed by a geologist on site or on the other side of the globe. By analyzing multiple drill cores from different holes and different depths, geologists can form an idea of how the bedrock underneath our feet looks and what it contains.
GeoCore X10 is first launched in Australia, in collaboration with the Swick Mining Services Group, and globally later this year.