Innovative mining company set to have a smashing time in South Australia

A Canadian-based mining innovation company, Rockburst Technologies, is the latest company to benefit from funding as part of the South Australian Landing Pad program to establish operations in South Australia.

 

The company, which is already engaging with BHP Olympic Dam in order to assess the technology’s capabilities, has plans to continue with the development of this technology in South Australia in collaboration with industrial and research partners. 

 

Rockburst’s five-year strategic growth plan in Australia has already kicked off by having recently hired a business development director and will continue this fiscal year with an expected five-person strong development team and supporting contractors.

 

Founded in 2020, the company develops innovative technology for mining comminution – the process that breaks rock to liberate minerals and that is responsible for 14 per cent of electricity consumption in Australia - with the technology showing evidence of energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction of 50 to 88 per cent compared to existing technologies.

 

The company plans to continue with the development of this technology in South Australia in collaboration with industrial and research partners with a five-year plan to hire a business development director, project manager and five-person strong development team with supporting contractors. 

 

“With our first client, BHP Olympic Dam based in Adelaide, we intend to continue working with them and furthermore, we will be exploring space mining/recycling applications of our technology in collaboration with the University of Adelaide and its Lunar Construction Group,” said Oscar Malpica, CEO and Co-Founder of Rockburst Technologies.

 

“The South Australian Landing Pad will support Rockburst Technologies to hire key staff and essentially kick-start our first international subsidiary outside of Canada.

 

“We are convinced that the mature mining ecosystem of South Australia with the many players in critical minerals and cement, coupled with solid mining and energy efficiency and R&D institutions, is fertile ground for the research, development and commercialisation of our Transcritical CO2 Pulverisation technology.”

 

Rockburst Technologies were winners of the South Australia Thinking Critical Challenge in 2022, organised by the Department for Energy and Mining and

Unearthed, providing the company with the opportunity to establish initial connections with organisations critical to kick-starting their South Australian operations. 

 

These include the University of Adelaide (Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources and Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources), South Australia University (Future Industries Institute), METS Ignited, Austmine, Hughes PR,

AusIMM, the South Australia Chamber of Mines & Energy, Core Innovation Hub and Unearthed. 

 

Rockburst Technologies hopes to develop its first international office in Adelaide to beachhead their Australasia expansion, moving into CoreHub at Lot Fourteen in the next couple of months.

 

For further information on Invest SA, visit www.invest.sa.gov.au