Congratulations to University of Tasmania student, Cassady Harraden, as she winds up her PhD with the ARC, Transforming the Mining Value Chain (TMVC) Hub. Part of Cassady’s research is focused on utilising the mineralogical and laser profile outputs from the Corescan system to extrapolate geotechnical index parameters. Commonly, geotechnical data are collected manually by geotechnical engineers and geologists on drill core. Corescan’s automated core logging technology provides an opportunity to rapidly and consistently collect surface topography (laser height data) and mineralogical information (hyperspectral data) from drill core. Combining the laser profile data and a series of logical image processing steps, fracture surfaces can be automatically identified and oriented. The mineralogical data is co-registered with the laser height data, so the mineralogy of these fractures can also be queried. The Corescan systems allow for large volumes of consistent geotechnical data to be generated, increasing the accuracy and efficiency of geotechnical rock mass characterisation.
Cassady’s work also garnered a shared Best Presentation award at last year’s Geomet 2016 conference with her paper, “Proposed Methodology for Utilising Automated Core Logging Technology to Extract Geotechnical Index Parameters” (co-authors, R. Berry from University of Tasmania and J. Lett from Newcrest Mining). Head over to the UTas eCite Digital Repository to download the full paper.