Chrysos PhotonAssay
Chrysos eyes 2021 ASX IPO on assay technology aiming to disrupt gold sector
Australian startup Chrysos Corporation Ltd. is only weeks away from securing an Australian multinational miner to further commercialize what the company hopes will be disruptive technology, cutting hours off the gold assaying process and preventing health risks from lead used in current methods. A metal assay is a test that assesses the purity of a metal object, with fire assays long considered the most accurate test for gold.
Adelaide, South Australia-based Chrysos bought the PhotonAssay technology in late 2016, the year it was founded, from the Australian government's chief science agency. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, or CSIRO, had been developing the technology for 15 years.
COVID-19 scuttled Chrysos' plans to list in 2020, as the company will need equity and/or debt injections in developing the technology, which has high capital expenditure but low operating expense estimates. The IPO will likely occur in the second half of 2021, having raised A$30 million in late 2019.
Chrysos CEO Dirk Treasure is a metallurgist who came from London broker RFC Ambrian to found the Australian company with James Tickner, who invented the PhotonAssay technology at CSIRO. Treasure told S&P Global Market Intelligence that the company believes the effect of its technology on the gold sector will be similar to that of the on-stream X-ray fluorescence, or XRF, assaying technology on the copper industry.
Metso Outotec Oyj, which developed the XRF technology that is now standard in any copper operation with a flotation plant, has said the production and processing of copper, tin, zinc, lead and nickel had "barely changed since the Middle Ages" until the mid-19th century.
Treasure noted that the fire assay method, which is the gold industry's incumbent technique, traces back over 2,000 years. Assaying is used across the gold industry from delineation and extraction through to processing.
Fire assay can take over 24 hours using a small sample of between 10 grams to 50 grams, though the industry's fastest technology can take about six hours. The method also requires extensive preparation and skilled workers who need to have their blood tested for dangerous lead levels once or twice per year, with hazardous waste requiring disposal.
PhotonAssay's process takes up to three minutes with "minimal to zero" sample preparation involved, using 500 gram samples, according to Treasure.
S&P/ASX 200-listed mining contractor Perenti Global Ltd.'s MinAnalytical Laboratory Services Pty. Ltd. has been operating Chrysos' equipment for two years with one unit deployed in Perth and two in Kalgoorlie in commercial labs.
About half a million commercial samples have been run using the technology and used in technical reports for companies including Novo Resources Corp., Gold Road Resources Limited, Gascoyne Resources Ltd. and Bellevue Gold Ltd. PhotonAssay, as operated by MinAnalytical, is already accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities.
To establish industry confidence in the technology, over 50 "blind trials" have been run on samples covering a wide range of deposit and material types from about 30 companies, including gold producers, commercial labs and waste recyclers, across Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
The next step is to "get the technology into a mine," Treasure said, whereby a lab is set up on-site, rather than sending the assays to a lab elsewhere. Once successful, industry acceptance will accelerate and multiple companies can be serviced from one lab.
Allan Trench, a professor at the Centre for Exploration Targeting at the University of Western Australia who formerly managed the Kalgoorlie Super Pit for Newmont Corp. and Barrick Gold Corp., said achieving a quick turnaround on a bigger sample is a "great positive," as "the more you sample, the more representative it is."
"It's a big market, because as [a recent] emissions study showed, there are 60-odd gold mines in Australia alone, then all that real-time analysis is always useful in the exploration space as well, particularly given gold is the flavor of the month and everybody is looking at high-grade, smaller deposits," he told Market Intelligence.
Source: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/chrysos-eyes-2021-asx-ipo-on-assay-technology-aiming-to-disrupt-gold-sector-59287961
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GLOBAL SERVICE AND MAINTENANCE MANAGER
Chrysos Corporation is seeking an experienced Global Service and Maintenance Manager to lead and grow our service team. Chrysos’ PhotonAssay systems operate in locations around Australia and expansion to overseas markets is planned for 2021.