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Technology: operational and cost efficiency The science of mining is evolving and so are mining techniques. There’s been a lot of advances over the last 25 years that I’ve seen, such as airborne geophysics. Airborne geophysics is a fantastic and very cost-effective tool. Historically, airborne magnetics would have cost about $150 per line kilometre. Now you can get it for about $11 per line kilometre and it’s very powerful. It allows miners to look under cover, to see geology through cover sequences and big structures and combine that with ground gravity work – which has also come a long way. Drilling is getting cheaper too, but there’s room for that to grow and I’m sure it will do in the next five or 10 years. Drilling rates are compa60
rable to what they were 15 years ago and miners are getting a bit more bang for their buck these days. Callum Baxter, Geologist, Greatland Gold
NOVEMBER 2018