The move marks another major step in the commercialisation of this significant CSIRO developed technology. State Minister Natural Resources, Mines and Energy Stephen Robertson, who opened the HQ said Intellection provided a major breakthrough for mining companies in Australia and internationally.

The technology enhances the capabilities of companies in ore characterisation, mineral extraction problem solving and getting better recoveries for miners and their shareholders.

The new facility houses the Intellection Research & Development and Analytical Laboratory where three QEMSCAN systems allow customers from anywhere in the world to rapidly analyse ore composition and provide insightful mineralogical information on commodities of interest such as gold, silver, platinum, copper, nickel, lead, zinc, magnesium, aluminium, coal and heavy mineral sand to name a few.

QEMSCAN enables the rapid automated discrimination of minerals. The technology involves the automation of a Scanning Electron Microscope to rapidly measure particles and identify the mineral species present. Mineral identification is primarily based on chemical composition information obtained from X-ray photons generated as an electron beam scans over the sample. The output typically comprises mineral maps of particles and quantitative data tables representing mineralogical, metallurgical and petrographic properties of the sample analysed. This output provides detailed information on ores and other products that previously was not available by any other means.