The winners of our latest annual Global Mining Technology Awards have been decided.
InvestMETS.com congratulates the seven winners of the awards, chosen from shortlists of finalists that came from more than 70 nominations.
InvestMETS.com’s anonymous judging process has a mix of miners, market analysts and expert advisors – 15 this year – spread across the Americas, Australia-Asia and EMEA regions. They vote 3-2-1 on the finalists that best meet InvestMETS.com’s category criteria and were put forward during the public nomination period.
Very even voting in this year’s Best Scale-up category meant the two winners, Canada’s Ideon and Brazil’s Fast2Mine, could not be separated. We congratulate the joint winners of this award.
The voting was also particularly close in the Best New Mining Technology/Innovation category, with Sweden’s Hypex Bio taking the award by a single vote from runner-up, I-ROX.
I-ROX was judged Best Start-up in this year’s awards.
Best Mining Technology Company for 2024 is Micromine, a mature Australian mining software company currently reported to be the subject of a A$1 billion-plus acquisition bid.
All the winners are listed below.
Best start-up
I-ROX is technology that could be “an important part of the change in our industry in terms of how we break from techniques we’ve used for 100-150 years”, the recent Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, heard. That comment was made by gold major Newmont’s CEO, Tom Palmer.
I-ROX is also the name of a privately-owned company based in Toulouse, France, formed in 2022, looking to ramp-up commercialisation of the unique rock-breaking technology that has so far received about US$30 million of funding from the French Government, Robert Friedland’s I-Pulse, mining giant BHP and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
“I-ROX is scaling up a disruptive new technology that will optimise the grinding and crushing of rock in the comminution component of the mining process,” a company spokesperson said. “The technology aims to reduce energy consumption and associated carbon emissions while increasing the recovery of critical minerals and materials needed for the energy transition.
“Our technology uses fast and short high-voltage pulses to replace centuries-old mechanical milling processes that are highly inefficient. Our disruptive process leverages the science of plasma physics to pass electrical arcs through rock, causing it to burst from the inside using tiny amounts of energy. This process unlocks more of the valuable minerals trapped inside, offering the potential to increase mineral recoveries. Through advanced modelling and simulations, we continue to optimise this process to deliver the best results.”
I-ROX uses pulsed power to create electrical arcs which pass through mineralised ore, bursting it from the inside to recover minerals ready for froth flotation in mineral processing circuits. Froth flotation underpins extraction of valuable metals such as copper, lead, zinc, lithium, rare earths and others.
“We aim to use up to 80% less energy than conventional grinding equipment that crushes rock from the outside in the comminution process, widely used in mining today. Not only does this offer the potential to materially reduce the cost of mining but it also offers the potential to reduce global emissions as around 4% of the world’s electrical energy is used in mineral comminution,” the spokesperson said.
“Our objective is to reduce energy consumption by up to 80% while increasing mineral recoveries by up to 5%. The potential value is game changing – reduced energy and consumables costs with higher recoveries would generate $18 billion per year for the copper industry alone. In addition to the cost savings, the reduction in energy consumption has a corresponding abatement potential of 400 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent.”
Newmont’s Palmer was among many industry visitors to I-ROX’s Toulouse laboratory over the past 12 months. Another high-profile visitor, Codelco chair Maximo Pacheco, says the technology “is almost like the Holy Grail that the mining industry has been searching for for decades”.
I-ROX has grown from 10 employees to 22 at the end of 2024. The next two years are expected to see this number rise significantly as the company grows its presence in key markets where onsite testwork is scheduled to get underway.
Best scale-up
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Ideon is on a growth tear since deepening its board in 2022 and targeting niche but lucrative market segments with its cosmic-ray muon tomography survey technology and modelling and analytical software that seeks to connect mining with the very best of what users have at their disposal in manufacturing, petroleum and other industries.
The company, which raised A$21 million (US$16 million) of equity financing that year and has Silicon Valley VC Playground Global as a key stakeholder, has gone from five employees in 2020 to more than 60 at the end of last year. It has also passed vital sales markers and grown revenues by more than 200% CAGR in the past three years.
A spin-off from Canada’s national particle physics lab, TRIUMF, Ideon calls itself a world pioneer in cosmic-ray muon tomography. It uses the energy from supernova explosions to image deep beneath the Earth’s surface. “We have developed a subsurface intelligence platform that integrates proprietary detectors, imaging systems, inversion technologies and artificial intelligence to provide x-ray-like visibility underground,” it says. “By transforming muon data into reliable 3D density maps, Ideon helps geologists identify, map, characterise and monitor mineral deposits with confidence. This reduces risk and cost of traditional methods while saving time, optimising returns and minimising environmental impact across the mining value chain.”
Because mining companies don’t know what is in the subsurface they use painstakingly slow methods of extracting and analysing detailed data from thousands of drill holes and interpolating what might exist between the geological biopsies.
“Even with all those holes they still don’t know for sure. They base billion-dollar investment and operational decisions on guesses of what might be there,” Ideon says.
The uncertainty leads to underperformance across the mining life cycle. With no way to address it, mining companies accept great business risk to get metals to market quickly. Inaccurate estimates can create operational, financial and corporate impacts that are felt for years and even decades.
“Our solutions help them remove geological uncertainty across their operations – from exploration through operations to reclamation and aftercare. The reliable and actionable insights we provide empower asset owners to improve and accelerate operational decisions and financial returns,” Ideon says.
The company’s main current markets are Canada, Australia and the USA and it is moving to grow in Latin America and select Asian countries.
Best scale-up
Belo Horizonte, Brazil-based FAST2 Mine says its flagship mine fleet management system is a “tier two” market offering but it counts tier-one market penetration among its many achievements since formation in 2015 and subsequent expansion into Mexico, Argentina, Guyana, USA and Australia.
CEO and founder Eder Griebeler says more than 80 mines use Fast2 Mine products, managing over 5000 equipment items, and he wants to increase that mine footprint threefold over the next two years.
“In 2024 FAST2 Mine made significant progress in terms of technology, bringing important functionalities for penetrating tier one and consolidating and penetrating the global tier two market,” Griebeler says. “The engine of growth will be continuous investment in technological advances, internationalisation, customer proximity and an uncomplicated business model and solution.”
Fast2 Mine has grown from one employee (Griebeler) in 2015 to 97 at the end of 2024.
Best mining-tech M&A transaction
Sweden’s Sandvik has made a host of acquisitions in the mining technology space in the past five years. While it continues to keep its investors in the dark about financial details of many of these deals, their strategic importance is becoming clearer.
Last year’s acquisition of Australia’s Universal Field Robots (UFR) could be one of its most strategically adept transactions yet, with the Queensland-based growing strongly on the back of mining and defence-related mobile-equipment automation projects. The former include its alliance with gold major Gold Fields in Western Australia. The miner has developed underground mine digitalisation and fleet automation templates it expects to export globally. UFR has also worked closely with companies such as ASX-listed Imdex on bespoke mining auto-vehicle platforms.
Sandvik CEO Stefan Widing said: “Universal Field Robots is an important strategic addition to Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, which will strengthen our growth potential and provide key capabilities in the development of our mining automation solutions portfolio going forward.”
The acquisition would expand Sandvik’s addressable market and enhance the position of its flagship AutoMine mining automation platform, he said. “Adding to the AutoMine platform’s existing capabilities to integrate third party equipment, UFR will significantly expand the number of compatible third-party equipment types, providing customers with flexible opportunities to optimise the performance of their full mining equipment fleets, regardless of the OEM,” Sandvik said. “UFR’s solution portfolio is built on a common autonomy platform, which is a strong complement to Sandvik’s automation offering and includes original equipment manufacturer-agnostic robotic and autonomous solutions for trucks, loaders and auxiliary equipment.”
Michael Place, principal specialist operations at Gold Fields Australia, told InvestMETS.com the company had made a significant investment in development of a standardised mine operating system template, with the primary focus on creating a scalable and adaptable solution. “Our approach is vendor-agnostic, modular and built for global deployment. The challenge wasn’t just cost, it was ensuring interoperability, future-proofing and aligning with ISA 95 standards.
“Electrification, safety, cost pressures and ESG requirements mean the need for a connected, modernised operation is now critical.
“The industry can no longer afford to delay underground digital transformation.
“IT-OT integration has historically been a challenge but the difference today is the clear imperative to get it right. The lessons from pioneers like Dundee Precious Metals have shown the benefits of getting ahead of the curve and we’re seeing a shift where underground digitalisation is a necessity, not an option.”
Place said traditional mining suppliers might struggle “if they can’t evolve quickly enough”.
“But it also creates opportunities for new players, especially those focused on interoperability, automation and digitalisation,” he said. Gold Fields saw this firsthand with UFR. “More competition and fresh approaches ultimately benefit the industry, though the shift does require traditional suppliers to rethink their models.”
Best mining-tech financing
Fleet Space Technologies’ A$150 million (US$100m) series D equity raise in December was the fourth biggest start-up financing in Australia in 2024 and, according to the Adelaide-based company, one of the few series D financings closed worldwide during the year in a subdued venture capital market.
Canada’s Teachers’ Venture Growth, part of the C$250 billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, led the funding round for the Australian sub-surface exploration technology firm. Blackbird Ventures, Hostplus, Horizons Ventures, Artesian Venture Partners and Alumni Ventures also backed the latest equity funding round. Fleet Space said its new circa-A$800 million valuation compared with a $350 million valuation a year earlier when it raised A$50 million.
Fleet Space has developed and commercialised nanosatellite-linked, lightweight terrestrial geophysical survey tools and proprietary multimodal AI models said to be used by more than 40 mineral explorers including mining industry majors such as Rio Tinto and Barrick. Co-founder and CEO Flavia Tata Nardini, a former propulsion engineer at the European Space Agency, said integrating the company’s low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, smart seismic sensors and AI streamlined exploration data acquisition and processing to help speed high-quality targeting while minimising environmental impact.
Fleet Space says its terrestrial ExoSphere system is the technological precursor for a lunar variant, Seismic Payload for Interplanetary Discovery, Exploration and Research (SPIDER) which will be deployed on the Moon in 2026.
Fleet Space says it now has more than 130 employees in Australia, US, Canada, Chile and Luxembourg.
Best new mining technology/innovation
When Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1867 he accelerated the industrial revolution by making it easier to extract minerals and create the structures of the industrial revolution. Swedish start-up Hypex Bio claims history is repeating – that it is reinventing explosives with a nitrate-free product that can be a vital part of sustainable future minerals and construction industries.
It wants to disrupt the US$14 billion global mining explosives market with Hypex HPE.
“The vast majority of all explosives globally are based on nitrate salts, mainly ammonium nitrate. The blasting technology used today was developed in the 1970s,” Hypex Bio co-founder and CEO, Thomas Gustavsson, says. “Very few technological developments in emulsion technology have taken place since then. Replace ammonium nitrate with hydrogen peroxide in a stable emulsion [HPE] to achieve a substantial reduction in carbon and GHG emissions [and eliminate] nitrate and ammonia gas and residue. Hypex HPE eliminates NOx gas in post detonation fumes as well as nitrate and ammonia water leaching residues.”
Gustavsson and Robert Hakland developed the basic chemistry and technology to stabilise hydrogen peroxide into a commercially viable explosive. In 2020 Hypex Bio started working with Swedish mining and metals company Boliden Mineral to test the technology at a mine on a large scale and subsequently on commercialisation. When Hypex Bio last year established two production facilities in Europe, backed by investors Omnia (South Africa) and SSE Group (Switzerland), Boliden entered into a five-year agreement to buy hydrogen peroxide explosives.
In December Hypex Bio was demonstrated in a small-scale blast at the Boliden Aitik mine in Sweden’s far north.
Gustavsson said the aim of the exercise was to verify safety, performance and handling aspects within the mine’s operational setting. He said the demonstration, managed in partnership by Hypex and Boliden on-site teams, “was a success, receiving positive feedback from both sides”.
“This demonstration represents a small but significant step on the joint testing and development roadmap that Boliden and Hypex have been navigating together,” he said.
“This demonstration gives confidence that sustainable explosives have future potential also for the large-scale industrial mining sector.”
Best mining technology company
Despite being around for three decades, Micromine rose to a high level of public prominence in 2022 when NASDAQ-listed Aspen Technology lobbed a A$900 million (US$623 million) cash offer to Australian private equity firm Potentia Capital and other shareholders.
The deal eventually fell through because, AspenTech said, it could not get Russian regulatory approval for the sale and a significant chunk of Micromine’s business was in Russia and its satellites.
Now Micromine is said to have grown its non-Russian mining software sales to as much as US$95 million (A$150 million), opening the door to a new line-up of bidders reportedly led by Sweden’s Epiroc, US-based Bentley Systems, which bought Seequent in 2021 for $US1 billion, Vista Equity Partners. AspenTech is also reportedly interested in another tilt.
Epiroc CEO Helena Hedblom said earlier this month the mining equipment major was interested in bolt-on technology acquisitions, not big platform deals.
Micromine is said to be growing strongly in North America.
Potentia bought its controlling stake in Micromine in December 2018 when it had about 280 employees supporting software installations at more than 2000 sites in 90 countries.
Now with about 350 people, Micromine says its software is being used at more than 3000 sites. The company says it has a geographically diverse, multi-commodity base of more than 800 customers.
