London-listed drilling, mining and analytical services contractor Capital has confirmed it acquired about 22% of Australia’s Eco Detection with last month’s US$6.6 million (A$10 million) equity purchase.
As part of the deal Capital became a global distributor to the mining industry of Eco Detection’s Ion-Q water monitoring technology.
It described the Ion-Q platform as “the world’s first fully autonomous multiparameter laboratory-grade water analysis system”.
“This continuously monitors water quality, transmitting proven laboratory-grade measurements in real-time directly from site, thereby eliminating the need for manual sampling,” Capital said this week.
“The cutting-edge technology holds significant growth potential across multiple sectors including the mining industry, by providing critical data for compliance and remediation reporting, monitoring downhole water quality and delivering real-time contaminant alerts to improve response times to leaching from tailings dams and other storage facilities.
“Additionally, it can aid community relations through monitoring of the local environment and waterways.”
Based on IP from the University of Tasmania in Australia, Ion-Q detection technology is said to use capillary electrophoresis to analyse water quality in the field in less than a minute and at a fraction of the cost of standard laboratory testing.
Eco Detection founder and CEO Jefferson Harcourt was last year recognised by The Australian Newspaper as one of its Top 100 Innovators.
The company was eyeing a 2023 Australian Securities Exchange listing in 2023 when it raised A$8 million via a convertible note issue. Engineering consulting firm GHD invested $2m at the time.
