ABSTRACT

Research projects of Anglo American with emphasis on the SPECTREM
and EXPLOREM Systems and their application at Hudson Bay Exploration and Development (HBED)

Research and Development, particularly in the geophysical arena, are most important to the continued successful exploration efforts of Anglo American.  Without high powered R and D we would find it difficult to attract top scientists and would therefore be unable to add value to Anglo American’s exploration activities.

Anglo is committed to R and D and has a strong technical department.  It is only through well focused R and D that we can be smarter and more successful than our competitors.  It remains an important component in our quest to retain our highly skilled research staff who are vital in adding functionality to in-house developed techniques, methodologies, software and instrumentation.

One of our significant strengths is our track record, which consists of novel applications of our science to the job of finding and developing mines.  In addition, we have very experienced staff who have had wide exposure to solving problems related to exploration and mining for gold, base metals, coal and diamonds throughout the world.  The Geophysical Services Department (GSD) of Anglo American assists our Exploration and Acquisitions Division and third party clients in their world wide exploration activities and plays an important role in reducing mining and drilling costs by predicting extensions to known ore reserves, unraveling structural complexities, monitoring environmental and safety issues and minimizing risks when assessing the potential of new acquisitions and mineral occurrences.

The in-house developed flagship of Anglo American is the SPECTREM 2000 airborne time domains electromagnetic system.  In addition we have successfully flown production surveys of the EXPLORHEM helicopter borne SPECTREM system and are pursuing the development of an ultra low cost AEM system, known as SPECTREM LITE.

The SPECTREM 2000 in its earlier configuration is directly responsible for the HBED discovery of the Photo Lake and Konuto Lake VMS mines in Manitoba and Saskatchewan respectively and at least two other deposits currently being evaluated.  With aggressive follow-up currently in progress, several more deposits are expected in the near future.

The SPECTEM 2000 system represents the latest and most comprehensive upgrade of the previously operated SPECTREM system.  All system components from the transmitter to the receiver have been modified and replaced.  The most significant has been the installation of a quasiresonant transmitter and a new receiver and real time processing system.

The EXPLOREM system was developed as a complement to the SPECTREM 2000 for operation in severe terrain and in areas where high resolution AEM coverage is required.  This system holds the potential of direct drill testing of airborne anomalies.  System operation is similar to that of the SPECTREM 2000.  The bird is constructed from Kevlar nomex in order to minimize weight of the 18m long bird.  The transmitter / receiver coil separation is 12 metres.

The top priority of Anglo American and the GSD is to maintain our leading edge research activities.  This is allied to our goals as a world-class organization, to retain our scientists and to form strategic alliances with other world-class players.  In this way we pool our resources and provide diverse training to our staff, which is so vital in sustaining our activities.  It enables us to continue occupying a strategic position within the exploration community.

The question may be asked whether Anglo American should continue with in-house R and D to address specifically its own requirements as well as those of the international exploration and mining community?  The answer is a resounding yes.  We are on the right track and that our record has shown our research activities and expenditure particularly in airborne geophysics have paid handsome dividends.