Leading global mining-tech company IMDEX has revealed record first-quarter revenue amid a strong start to the financial year.
Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting, chief executive officer Paul House said revenue growth was up in all key regions with an increasing demand for real-time orebody knowledge and robust industry fundamentals.
IMDEX technologies enable resource companies and drilling contractors, to find, define, and mine orebodies – with precision, confidence and at speed.
Record unaudited first-quarter revenue of $105.9 million was up 22 per cent on the same period last year.
Sensors on hire were up 13 per cent on 1Q22 and 9 per cent on 4Q22.
House said supply chain pressures also continued to ease during the first quarter.
Revenue growth was up 17 per cent from 1Q22 in the Americas, 29 per cent in Africa and Europe, and 27 per cent in Australia and Asia.
House said exploration budgets remained strong in Australia, with clients reporting longer order books of nine to 10 months rather than three to four months.
Major and mid-cap mining clients were reporting ongoing or expanded exploration budgets, and deeper ore bodies were resulting in larger and more complex drilling programs.
The drive to expand existing projects or find additional ore bodies to sustain current production levels, continuing strong demand for metals across a broad range of sectors, and an increased demand for critical metals all contributed to a strong outlook.
Funding for special commodities, which includes lithium and rare earth elements, was up 232 per cent on August, according to S&P market Intelligence.
“It is worth noting that during this current cycle, unlike any cycle previously, the industry has not made any major discoveries,” House said.
“We believe that this supports both the continued need for exploration drilling and the importance of precision mining technologies that may improve the economics of smaller deposits or increase the mine life of existing operations.”
House said that early in the first quarter of FY23 IMDEX signed its first significant commercial contract with a Tier 1 resource company in South Africa for its bore hole stabiliser (BHS), part of its suite of drilling optimisation products.
BHS is a multifunctional product formulated specifically for air drilling applications, particularly drill and blast applications.
Trials are underway with underground commercial prototypes in Africa, Asia, and Australia, and further opportunities exist for surface applications.
The IMDEX first-quarter snapshot follows the full-year results delivered in August in which it reported record revenue of $341.8 million, a 29.3 per cent increase on FY21, record EBITDA of $104.9 million, a 38.9 per cent increase, and Net Profit After Tax of $44.7 million, a 41 per cent increase on FY21.
