Geophysical airborne service provider Spectrem Air intends to not only engage with its clients, but “understand what the theme of ‘Unlocking the Future of mining’” will mean for the company.

This year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba, held in Cape Town from February 6 to 9, will be another event that brings together the full spectrum of stakeholders, operators and explorers from Africa and beyond.

By engaging with them, it “helps us to understand what their objectives are, and how we can assist them in achieving them”, Spectrem Air geophysical manager Brad Pitts states.

Global conditions have impacted everyone to some extent and have, in some respects, tied up resources. When the market is tough, it is often exploration budgets that are impacted, and clients are therefore very circumspect as to where they will spend their resources, he elaborates.

However, he notes that the demand for resources (especially those within the energy space) has not decreased, and he expects demand to instead continue to grow more than in the past.

“The industry has seen an increase in the need for exploration services, and it is against this background that some constraints in the supply chain for certain spares, for both operations and research and development, have impacted negatively, while certain expenditures like fuel costs, which affect both operations and logistics, have made for a more challenging work environment. It has taught us to operate in a lean and agile manner,” Pitts comments.

Taking this into account, he says that Spectrem Air believes that the “market must grow in both the minerals and groundwater exploration sense”.

“The need for services is from both private companies, as well as government or aid organisations, to increase their knowledge about their resources, which itself can stimulate growth and development. We know that we have a role to play in the provision of these services and we hope to grow our share,” Pitts adds. 

Spectrem is an African grown company and one of the world leaders in airborne geophysical data collection, processing and interpretation. Specifically, the company’s main tool is airborne electromagnetic surveying, and it operates a system which has the largest dipole moment (used to measure the power of an EM system) commercially available.

“This allows us to provide a tool that helps to image physical properties of materials beneath the surface to great depths. Our unique patented system, and the processing of the data we collect allows us to be broadband, and to resolve features both near to surface and very deep simultaneously.”