News IMDEX technology wins mining innovation award

Breakthrough drill and blast technology being developed by leading global mining-tech company IMDEX has won a Queensland mining award.

IMDEX Blast DOG^TM, being developed in collaboration with Universal Field Robots and tested at Anglo American’s Dawson coal mine in Queensland won the 2020 Queensland Mining Awards innovation category.

IMDEX Blast DOG™ is a semi-autonomously deployed system for logging material properties and blast hole characteristics at high spatial density across the bench and mine and is commodity agnostic.

No other technology has the capacity to produce the same data and provide as large an impact on downstream processes including enhancing productivity.

The judges said Universal Field Robots and IMDEX conquered the challenge of logging blast holes, while removing operators from harm’s way.

IMDEX Chief Executive Officer Paul House said the company was honoured to be nominated.

“To be the winner among such esteemed competition is a testament to the team and our collaboration partners, Universal Field Robots, Anglo American, Teck Resources Limited, and Orica supported by METS Ignited,” Mr House said.

“IMDEX has a passion to provide the mining industry with purpose-built solutions. IMDEX Blast DOG™ is no exception and we are investing heavily in solutions that provide significant benefit to our customers.”

The IMDEX Blast DOG™ solution moved from concept to prototype in just four months which provided the platform and justification to develop a commercial version.

The innovation category was hotly debated, with judges looking at all five finalists as addressing the industry’s big issues.

Judge Sharna Glover said IMDEX Blast DOG™ was “a great innovation that shows the power of partnering. A robotics platform that is able to be exported makes a very commendable entry”.