Canadian mining technology firm Ideon has confirmed its first global enterprise contract with a mining major following CEO Gary Agnew and co-founder Doug Schouten’s recent visit to Australia.
As reported last month by InvestMETS.com Ideon is working on a series of long-term, multi-site deals with larger miners.
It has now confirmed a five-year partnership with Rio Tinto which will initially focus on deployment of Ideon’s REVEAL muon tomography subsurface imaging technology at six sites.
In Perth, Western Australia, for last month’s 2025 Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC), Agnew told InvestMETS.com Ideon could sign two or three enterprise deals this year. “[The agreements] take us from one site to global deployment. That’s a very exciting phase of the journey for us,” he said.
He said this week the Rio Tinto alliance marked “a defining step in Ideon’s quest to build the subsurface intelligence layer for the planet, starting where the world need us most, in mining”.
“Together with Rio Tinto we are unlocking the future of mining by accelerating discovery, enabling precision mining operations and by delivering assurance in site restoration and aftercare, all powered by our REVEAL platform.
“This partnership is proof of what’s possible when bold vision meets conviction.”
No financial details of the Rio Tinto deal have emerged, however, a US newspaper described it as a “multi-million-dollar agreement”.
Rio Tinto’s Kennecott copper mine in Utah, USA, and its WA iron ore operations will be early, more expansive users of Ideon’s tech.
The Vancouver-headquartered company has also been working closely with BHP and Vale.
Ideon shared InvestMETS’ 2024 Best Scale-up award in its annual Global Mining Technology Awards.
