Background
Kalamazoo Resources is an exploration company with a suite of gold assets in Western Australia and Victoria. The business was seeking an alternative exploration method to drilling at the expansive Wattle Gully site, Castlemaine, Victoria. They sought assistance from CSIRO SME Connect and funding support from the Australian Government’s Entrepreneurs’ Programme, Innovation Connections service, to research alternatives to expensive exploration drilling methods.
Challenge
Drilling is the usual – but expensive - method of minerals exploration. With a large project area to cover at the Wattle Gully site, Kalamazoo Resources needed an alternative, more efficient method.
The business had access to ~80,000m of historical drilling, an extensive geological drill hole database and 3D models of the deposit. It used this data to develop an understanding of the mineralising potential and model of the area.
Kalamazoo contacted their local Innovation Connections Facilitator from CSIRO SME Connect, who assisted them to access an Innovation Connections Researcher Placement grant to support the project. Hayley recommended CSIRO Mineral Resources as the partner research organisation who had the expertise and capability to assist under the guidance of Senior Research Scientist Dr Adam Bath.
The Innovation Connections grant was important to be able to initiate our first project. However, whilst the funding is one helpful part of this process it was the opportunity to collaborate with CSIRO which was more important to us. We would not normally have access to this level of expertise and resources as a junior company and SME and the funding made it easier for us to commit to the project.
— Luke Mortimer, Kalamazoo Resources Exploration Manager
Outcome
The project applied new characterisation techniques to interpret data and generate a new exploration approach for the area. It's success led to a second Innovation Connections Researcher Placement grant.
The outcome of the first project at Wattle Creek was so useful we have initiated a second project. It's looking at how we can apply the first project's results in Victorian gold exploration. The connection between Hayley, Innovation Connections Facilitator, to Adam, Senior Research Scientist, was crucial in the acquisition of the grant and ultimately to the success of the project.
—Luke Mortimer, Kalamazoo Resources Exploration Manager
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