I. Drilling contracting companies and drilling equipment suppliers
In Western Australia, Australia, where the mining industry is very developed, there are more than 70 drilling contracting companies. The exploration departments of primary exploration companies and large mining companies in Western Australia selectively issue bidding documents according to the requirements of exploration projects for drilling. Selection is based on: drilling contractor's rig model and equipment status, technical level and specialty, reputation and quality, company's rig location, etc. Both primary exploration companies and exploration departments of large mining companies hope to produce results as soon as possible. The actual footage, construction period and core recovery rate of drilling company are important considerations. Quotation is not the most important factor, but the requirements for environmental protection and safety are getting higher and higher. In Western Australia, drilling contracting companies have their own relatively stable exploration company customers.
We should be familiar with some rules of quotation settlement in commercial mineral exploration market, which are different from those in China. For example, Green Drilling Co in Western Australia, the quoted items of air reverse circulation drilling (RC) include: the return moving fee of the drilling rig is 2.75 Australian dollars/km; The basic cost of air reverse circulation drilling (calculated by interval) is 0 ~ 130m, and the well depth is 22.5 Australian dollars/m; The downtime fee caused by non-drilling company's fault (e.g. slippery snowy road) is 120 Australian dollars/hour; Due to the change of the drilling plan of the exploration company, it is required to stop work 100 Australian dollars/hour; Auxiliary time cost (such as logging, mud preparation, old well treatment, etc.). ) 140 Australian dollars/hour; Moving cost between boreholes (/kloc-calculated after 0/5 minutes) 120 Australian dollars/hour. Another example is the core well Pty. In Western Australia, the quoted items of diamond coring drilling are as follows: drilling rig return relocation fee 1.5 Australian dollars/km; The basic price of coreless drilling is 22 Australian dollars/meter; The basic price of specification coring is 62 Australian dollars/meter; Auxiliary time expenses such as shutdown, mud preparation, drilling rig moving in mining area, logging, etc. Both are 1 10 Australian dollars/hour. At present, the average cost of diamond coring drilling is 100 ~ 120 Australian dollars/meter, and the average cost of air reverse circulation drilling (RC) is 25 ~ 30 Australian dollars/meter.
The drilling contract has a fixed format and content. Including general introduction, work scale (minimum drilling meters, drilling number, maximum hole depth, etc.). ), site arrival mode, drilling date, drilling and logging cooperation, aperture, core recovery rate, core loss treatment, failure to complete treatment on schedule, unit price of various expenses, contract termination conditions, obligations of both parties, contract validity period, insurance and remarks. After spudding, the driller and the field geologist of the exploration company will fill in the drilling report daily. Daily report is the basis of expense settlement. After completing a contract, the drilling company shall settle accounts with the exploration company according to the daily report and the contract unit price.
Sichuan Huafeng Drilling Engineering Co., Ltd. is an internationally competitive drilling contracting company that adopts international technical standards in China and is recognized by foreign exploration companies. Since its establishment, it has contracted dozens of drilling projects of Sino-foreign joint venture exploration projects. In the drilling of Boka gold mine project in Yunnan, which is very difficult to drill, the construction period, quality and price all exceed those of Canadian drilling contracting company. The technical standards of Sichuan Huafeng Drilling Engineering Co., Ltd. are partially higher than the domestic core drilling specifications. For example, if the core recovery rate is greater than 95% and the core recovery rate is less than 95%, there is no charge. In order to effectively control the ore body, inclined holes with any inclination angle of 45 ~ 90 can be constructed, and the average monthly footage exceeds 800 meters. The safety management of drilling construction and strict environmental protection of construction site are the competitive advantages of Huafeng Drilling Engineering Co., Ltd. in contracting projects.
Recently, more and more mineral exploration companies have talked about the role of drilling in exploration industry, and the practice of paying too much attention to the study of metallogenic regularity and exploring new prospecting methods has been questioned. The industry put forward a slogan: "If you don't drill, you can't find anything". There are indications that the success rate of mineral exploration industry has decreased, and one of the important reasons is that there is less drilling, especially for prospecting. The drilling cost should account for more than 40% of the total exploration cost, otherwise the mineral exploration budget is not properly arranged. 1997 global mineral exploration drilled 8.2 million meters on gold and base metals, and only 3.7 million meters in 2002. In the new exploration cycle, exploration companies should be more flexible and more determined to deploy and drill. Drilling contractors and drilling equipment suppliers are also facing an important business opportunity.
Second, commercial laboratories.
Commercial laboratories provide various chemical and physical analysis for ore and rock samples of exploration projects of primary exploration companies and exploration departments of large mining companies. All kinds of exploration companies can choose different commercial laboratory services according to their different needs, among which the most important thing is to consider the analysis items, sensitivity, quality, price, analysis cycle, qualification and reputation, data reporting methods, laboratory operation methods, testability and services.
The analytical data provided by reputable commercial laboratories are recognized by professional exploration companies, stock exchanges, professional consulting institutions, various investment institutions and intermediary service institutions. The reputation of commercial laboratories is established through long-term market testing. Most geologists and exploration companies will check the process, quality measures, equipment, personnel quality and operation management of commercial laboratories in a professional way or entrust independent exploration geologists to confirm the service quality, credibility and stability of commercial laboratories.
Commercial laboratories must consider how to reduce operating costs. Some small and medium-sized commercial laboratories can consider building simple laboratories, using second-hand instruments from universities or research institutes, and hiring analysts to reduce costs. Some large laboratories can provide more services and ensure quality by equipped with advanced instruments and equipment and perfect process control, so as to attract more business and share and reduce costs through scale operation.
Let's take ALS Chemex as an example to introduce the operation of commercial laboratories. ALS Chemex is the merger of two most influential mineral analysis and testing groups in the world, that is, Chemex, Canada's most professional mineral laboratory, was merged into Australian Laboratory Services Company on 1999. ALS Chemex is now the largest commercial laboratory group for ore analysis in the world. At present, there are 40 laboratories in the world, distributed in five continents, mainly in Australia, Canada, the United States, Brazil, Peru, South Africa, Russia and other places. Recently, a professional laboratory covering an area of 3,000 square meters was established in Guangzhou, China, namely Aussie Guangzhou Mineral Experiment. Its service orientation is "the best mineral analysis and testing service in China".
Laboratories under ALS Chemex are not independent institutions, nor are they simply duplicated with each other. ALS Chemex operates according to the global unified quality system and has formed a global service network in 40 mineral laboratories around the world. The company arranges according to the geographical situation and the principle of specialization, and some of them are more specialized in the analysis of certain projects and some unconventional projects, so as to improve the overall enjoyment of the company's technical resources and minimize the limitations of service projects. For example, the fire assay analysis in Canada and China, and the iron ore analysis in Australia are all laid out by the company.
The quality and reliability of ALS Chemex are based on two foundations: one is to rely on strict process management; Second, advanced equipment. Taking Guangzhou Laboratory as an example, its drying furnace, crusher, crushing prototype, atomic absorption and inductively coupled plasma instrument (ICP) are all imported, and the best equipment and instruments in the world are selected. Vancouver laboratory has more than 20 ICP-OES and10 ICP-ms. ..
After the customer's sample arrives at the ALS Chemex laboratory, all the processing details will be recorded in the system, and the customer will get a user code, which, like the bank user, can directly access the laboratory server through a secure network channel to track the details and specific situations of sample processing. Detailed process records, such as sample drying, crushing and sample preparation, corresponding QC process and results, digestion, melting, fire assay, instrument analysis and final analysis results, analysis certificates, quality control standards, result data charts, etc. , you can download it to your computer. ALS Chemex laboratory adopts a "system open to customers", which includes both the actual operation process and the data recording system.
A perfect laboratory management system is very important for commercial laboratories. Take Vancouver Laboratory as an example, it processes about 3 million samples every year. If each sample produces 50 data, there will be150,000 data in a year. Therefore, ALS Chemex has high-end servers and advanced network systems in every laboratory in the world. Accordingly, ALS Chemex has a strong IT professional team with more than a dozen IT experts to maintain the operation of the global IT network system.
On the technical level, ALS Chemex has made full use of the company's advantages and established a complete series of service projects. Different service items are suitable for different situations, so that their service items can cover all elements of the periodic table of elements, and can also adapt to different lithology, grade and specific requirements. Taking the analysis of gold as an example, the company has about 70 analysis and detection methods to adapt to different situations and requirements.
Because of its large-scale standardized operation, commercial laboratories greatly reduce the analysis cost. In terms of gold analysis, the relevant departments of our country stipulate that the charge for each sample analysis is 30 dollars, while the charge for a 30-gram gold element fire assay by ALS Chemex is 1 1.7 dollars; It costs 8. 1 USD to analyze 35 elements by ICP spectrometer, which is equivalent to one element 1.7 yuan RMB, and the quality reaches the quality standards of ISO 17025 and ISO 900 1.
On the website of ALS Chemex (www.alschemex.com), you can find the company's technical information and business information.
Some domestic laboratories engaged in ore analysis have passed the certification of international standards and have been recognized by international investment institutions and independent exploration geologists. Their analysis results can be used as public information, such as the laboratory of Institute of Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration of Langfang Academy of Geological Sciences in Hebei Province.
Third, remote sensing and mapping companies.
Take Murphy Geological Service Company as an example, which is an Irish remote sensing company specializing in mineral exploration and was established in June 2002. Dr. Murphy has 24 years of experience in remote sensing mineral exploration, undertaking global mineral exploration business, and providing high-quality satellite image interpretation (including Landsat ETM+, ASTER, SPOT, radar and other satellite image interpretation), field structural analysis and geological mapping of mineralized areas, structural model analysis and structural synthesis, determination of exploration target areas according to mineralization models, regional mineral evaluation and other services. He is good at exploring low sulfide hydrothermal gold deposits, hydrothermal vein lead-zinc-silver deposits, high temperature hydrothermal metasomatic deposits, low temperature massive sulfide deposits, porphyry gold-copper deposits and other types of deposits. The company operates in 4 1 countries on all continents. These deposits are closely related to structures and are easy to be interpreted by remote sensing. It is worth mentioning that the company's services can be free, but it needs to get a small percentage of the rights and interests of the project, and bind remote sensing analysis and prospecting risks together.
4. Geophysical Company
Because commercial mineral exploration mainly invests in precious metals, base metals, uranium and diamonds, there are fewer and fewer surface outcrops available for traditional geological prospecting, and the importance of geophysical methods increases. Various geophysical companies have become the most important contracting engineering companies for mineral exploration technology. At the annual exploration and developer conference in Canada, it is the category of exploration contracting companies with the largest proportion of participants. Here are two examples of geophysical companies.
1. fugu aerial survey co., ltd. Limited liability company (limited liability company)
This company is the most comprehensive and advanced aviation geophysical exploration company in the world. Providing global services, in addition to aerial geophysical prospecting for mineral exploration, it also carries out aerial geophysical prospecting for environmental protection and engineering construction. Various methods such as airborne electromagnetic method, high-precision airborne magnetic survey, airborne gravity and airborne gamma-ray spectrum have been carried out. It has a non-public airborne geophysical database, which stores airborne geophysical data of 6,543,805,000 linear kilometers, equivalent to 262 circles around the earth. The company's technology is suitable for finding volcanic massive sulfide deposits, magnetic copper-nickel deposits, metamorphic hydrothermal copper-gold deposits containing magnetite, porphyry copper deposits, skarn deposits, kimberlite cones and various uranium deposits. The exploration results can be found on the company website. For example, the ovoid ore body in the nickel belt in Voith Bay, Canada is a dense disseminated-dense massive copper-nickel sulfide ore, and aerial geophysical exploration has played an important role in the discovery of this concealed ore body. The resource/reserve of this mine is 3 1.7 million tons of ore, and the ore grade is 2.8% of copper, 0.7% of nickel/kloc-0 and 0. 1% of cobalt.
2. Zongge Engineering and Research
This is a ground geophysical prospecting contracting company, which has a history of nearly 20 years in China. Carry out ground geophysical survey, be good at electrical method and provide data interpretation; Provide data processing software such as IP model, AMT model and TEM model; At the same time, we also develop and sell instruments, including signal generation, transmission, reception, antennas and other instruments.
Verb (abbreviation for verb) explores suppliers of materials and equipment.
Including temporary field sheds, tents, work clothes, hiking shoes, electronic notebooks, GPS, geological hammers, compasses, magnifying glasses, sampling tools, sample bags with special requirements and other equipment and materials for field exploration, forming a convenient supply network.
Six, transportation and communication service companies
Include satellite phones, helicopters and small planes. In order to improve the work efficiency of valuable geologists and explore in remote areas, helicopters and small planes are widely used. At the annual conference of exploration and developers in Canada, more than 65,438+00 aircraft wet leasing companies set up booths, such as Singapore Airlines and Canada Helicopter Co., Ltd., to reserve various types of aircraft and their service time for mineral exploration according to the exploration plan.
Seven, adventure camp service company
For larger exploration projects, professional exploration camp construction, logistics support, camp cancellation and restoration are needed, and such companies provide these services.
Suppliers of exploration materials and equipment, transportation and communication service companies and exploration camp service companies are all companies in the mineral exploration industry and are part of the mineral exploration market. A highly specialized division of labor will spend all the time of geologists with the highest labor cost on field observation and thinking, thus improving the efficiency of mineral exploration. The annual meeting of Canadian exploration and developers is an opportunity for mineral exploration technology contracting engineering companies to develop their business and sign contracts.
Since 1980s, China's geological prospecting units have begun to explore the reform of geological prospecting system, starting with the professional division of labor of "separation of geological prospecting and drilling". Later, this reform slowly stopped, which can be seen from the publicity materials of geological prospecting units to develop market business. The business scope of "100 bureaus and 1000 teams" is similar, and its characteristics are not outstanding. Generally, mineral geological exploration, drilling, geophysical and geochemical survey, hydrogeological engineering geological survey, surveying and mapping, laboratory analysis and geographic information processing can be carried out. In recent years, the business of geological prospecting units has been further expanded, generally including mining development, geological exploration and environmental geological disaster control, engineering exploration and basic engineering construction, gem identification, agricultural geological tourism geological survey and so on. , forming a group of "specialized" geological prospecting units, which are different from the geological prospecting industry in market economy countries.