Novamera mining tech anticipates Series B next year, CEO says
The following article was written and featured on Mergermarket.com the leading provider of forward-looking M&A intelligence and data to M&A professionals and corporates around the world
By Hana Askren
Novamera Company Presentation 2020
View more information through our marketing presentation below.
June 2, 2020
Novamera, a Mississauga, Ontario-based mining technology company, is likely to require additional capital ahead of an early 2022 field test, said Dustin Angelo, CEO.
The company recently announced a Series A from Chrysalix Venture Capital. The size of the round was not disclosed but the company has raised a total of CAD 4m (USD 2.96m) including equity and government financing, and would likely need an additional CAD 4m by mid-2021, he said. It is looking for grants and other types of funding so it has not yet decided how much will be equity, he added.
Novamera has developed a “Sustainable Mining by Drilling” technology for mining steeply-dipping narrow vein deposits that are not economical using conventional methods. It could also be a method of secondary or tertiary mining to maximize total production, as producers will sometimes leave hard–to-reach resources in the ground even after developing their mines, he explained. This technology will allow them to recover those resources without having to build new mine infrastructure. The technology is commodity agnostic and can be used wherever the geology and geometry allow, he said.
The company began its development within gold junior Anaconda Mining [TSX:ANX], which still holds a 34% stake in the company, according to an Anaconda press release. The field test will take place at Anaconda’s Romeo and Juliet deposit in Newfoundland in mid-2022, after about a year of validation and other trials, said Angelo.
Novamera expects to begin generating revenue after that, and is working on business development to identify the most attractive markets and highest value customers. Narrow vein geology exists all over the world, and many companies have approached Novamera about its technology, he said.
The technology can be deployed from the surface in an open pit format or underground, he said.
Novamera says its new drilling technology consumes less energy and has a smaller footprint than conventional mining, and because it selectively targets the ore, leaves more waste in the ground. The tailings can be put back into the holes after the ore is processed, Angelo explained.
The Sustainable Mining by Drilling system is a combination of patent-pending inventions and off-the-shelf equipment such as diamond drills, pile top drill rigs, ground penetrating radar and other tools. Some of the inventions include making downhole ground-penetrating radar directional and augmenting hole opening equipment, he said.
Disrupt Mining 2019 Pitch Video
Before Anaconda Mining set up Novamera to continue the development of SMD, the SMD team was a finalist at Disrupt Mining 2019. Check out the video!