Raw minerals’ chemical and mineralogical compositions vary significantly. This is one of the main challenges for the optimized mining processes since the composition of the raw materials is very unpredictable. The objectives of this feasibility study were to verify the (1) feasibility and (2) business potential of mining sector to fast and affordable on-line mineralogical analysis technology based on timegated Raman spectroscopic technology. The main objectives of this Phase 1 have been:
• To identify the potential customers, partners and other key players in this field
• To identify the customer need in more detail and to make the value proposition
• To specify the user requirements and to do the first draft of instrument specification and R&D plan for Phase 2
• To update the IPR strategy and to do a ‘freedom to operate analysis’ for mining sector
• To make the financial projections and analyze the economic viability of the case
During the Phase 1, over 100 interviews of mining stakeholders were executed including major and junior mining companies, metal and mineral mines, exploration companies, service providers, automation and instrumentation companies, analytical instrument provides, software providers, national geological survey centers and universities. Also, 5 on-site mine visits were done and several laboratory test measurements with real mining samples were performed. Moreover, the brief market literature survey was completed as well as a more detailed patent search to confirm the freedom to operate. Finally, the business potential for our innovation was estimated through the estimated revenues, profits and job creation.
The more detailed analysis of the results form these interview showed that mineralogical information is vital at the all stages of mining, from exploration to end product quality analysis and even in recycling stage. To evaluate the need and business potential for our solution in the mining industry, we looked in more detail the different market sectors based on the general mining value chain, i.e. exploration – quarrying – mining – concentrating - refining and recycling. For each stage, we determined end users/customers, what type of instrument would be needed, sample type to be analyzed, purpose of analysis, buying driver for our solution and potential market size.
The common feature for all the above mentioned mining segments is that, they all require very robust technological solution which can stand in the severe mining conditions, i.e. immunity to varying temperatures, they have resistance to vibrations, immunity to dust, spatter and dirt, require minimum of maintenance and has a long life-time. Big difference to industrial end-user requirements and Timegate’s current academic customers is that all industrial customers require spectral data processing to be solved, i.e. the end user will require mineral identification result or concentration value or the trend/change in concentration values, not the Raman spectra data. This will mean an extensive additional work for the algorithm development, spectral database collection and calibration modeling.
