Sweat equity in the Mining sector

[drbubb]

...here's one group that does it...

 

Australia's Geoinformatics willing to work for equity

Helped at Red Lake: Australian firm uses own process to analyze data

 

Peter Evans, Financial Post ... March 09, 2005

 

The mining community was shocked in 2001 when Goldcorp Inc. opened its Red Lake data logs to the geologists of the world and issued the Goldcorp challenge: Tell us where we should drill. And miners were even more surprised when an upstart Australian company won.

 

Four years later, Geoinformatics Exploration Inc. is far from resting on its laurels. It's looking for more.

 

"We got $100,000 and lots of kudos from Canada, but we would have loved some equity in those [Goldcorp] discoveries," says Darren Holden, a Geoinformatics vice-president, who was attending yesterday's Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in Toronto.

 

But the company did get priceless name recognition from the Goldcorp deal.

 

A specialist in 3D geological modelling with a market cap of $17.6-million, Geoinformatics now exchanges its expertise for equity in mining developments and has projects in six countries.

 

In February, Geoinformatics obtained a listing on the TSX Venture Exchange. Australia-based Fractal Holdings, and TSX-listed St. Andrew Goldfields each have a 28.3% stake. Canadian mining giant Goldcorp owns 5.7 % of the company.

 

Using a technology called "the Geoinformatics Process," the company can analyze in as little as five months mountains of data that used to take up to five years to examine.

 

Geoinformatics says that by using its process the company has found value in deposits previously thought worthless.

 

"We felt the market was ready for a new approach," Mr. Holden says.

 

"Sometimes, it's as simple as getting a cabinet with 2,000 papers in it. It's stuff nobody thinks to look at but it's useful information we can synthesize," Mr. Holden says.

 

The secret, he says, is thinking in three dimensions. In an industry inundated with maps, graphs and numbers, Geoinformatics creates 3D geological models of potential mine locations. The process allows the company to find potential sources other surveys may have missed.

 

"That's all we did with Goldcorp," Mr. Holden says, "we just looked at it in three dimensions."

 

The world's great surface deposits have already been discovered, Mr. Holden suggests.

 

"We're more interested in what's underneath [those deposits]."

 

By way of example, Mr. Holden points to an Australian junior. The company thought it had run into trouble when its deposit of gold and nickel was not as big as it had hoped. But by having Geoinformatics analyze the data, the company learned it was actually sitting on a valuable iron mine.

 

"We turned it around in four months," Mr. Holden says. "Sometimes that extra 5% knowledge can be enough.

 

"But in the end, technology is just a tool -- it all comes down to smart geology."

 

 

@: http://www.stockhouse.com/bullboards/viewm...0&TableID=2

 

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About Geoinformatics

Geoinformatics is a global resources company which has developed a unique and innovative approach to resources exploration. The Company’s team of geoscientists and technical experts has created a scientific and technology platform (the “Geoinformatics Process”) which integrates data aggregation, data mining and three-dimensional modeling to identify and prioritize exploration drill targets. The Geoinformatics Process has been designed to assist in understanding and quantifying risk at a much earlier stage of the exploration cycle than has traditionally been available. The Company’s objective has been to bring a faster, less expensive and more reliable analytical methodology to resources exploration.

 

website : http://www.geoinformex.com/