By Chuck Black
Two years ago, as outlined in the April 10th, 2016 post, "Deltion Innovations Receives Gov't Funding to Develop Multi-Tool for Space Mining; Will Anyone Buy It?," Capreol ON based Deltion Innovations received a $700,000 CDN contract from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to build a Percussive and Rotary Multi-Purpose Tool (PROMPT), a combination drill and rotary multi-use tool designed to facilitate future mining operations on the Moon, the asteroids and on Mars.
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Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.
Two years ago, as outlined in the April 10th, 2016 post, "Deltion Innovations Receives Gov't Funding to Develop Multi-Tool for Space Mining; Will Anyone Buy It?," Capreol ON based Deltion Innovations received a $700,000 CDN contract from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to build a Percussive and Rotary Multi-Purpose Tool (PROMPT), a combination drill and rotary multi-use tool designed to facilitate future mining operations on the Moon, the asteroids and on Mars.
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| The first PROMPT on the left with the commercial "MicroCorer" version on the right in the Deltion booth at PDAC 2019. Photo's c/o Chuck Black. |
At the time, the real question was whether anyone would ever commercially support the tool by buying one. While that question doesn't yet have a definitive answer, it's worth noting that Deltion, after delivering the original PROMPT in 2017, has just rolled out a smaller, less costly, commercially available version of the tool for terrestrial mining operations.
This is how the space industry is supposed to work.
The commercial version is called a "MicroCorer Sampling Tool" and according to the Deltion specification sheet, it's designed to "extract a small core sample in difficult to access areas, such as a drill face between advancement rounds."
According to Deltion CEO Dale Boucher:
According to Boucher, PROMPT required twenty years of "significant time and fiscal investments" before the CSA provided enough money to build the demonstration unit. The final cost for the commercial MicroCorer is expected to be under $50K CDN per unit, a substantial cost savings over current methods of accessing core samples during drilling operations.
The new tool was rolled-out for review during the recently concluded 2019 annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), which was held in Toronto, ON from March 3rd - 6th.
As outlined in the March 4th, 2019 post, "The New Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan Stakes its Claim on the Space Industry," the recently released Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan (CMMP), also unveiled at PDAC 2019, discussed the need for the adaption of "new and emerging technologies" from a variety of other industries, including Canada's space industry.
This is how the space industry is supposed to work.
The commercial version is called a "MicroCorer Sampling Tool" and according to the Deltion specification sheet, it's designed to "extract a small core sample in difficult to access areas, such as a drill face between advancement rounds."
According to Deltion CEO Dale Boucher:
...when mining companies are looking for minerals and drilling holes, core samples of the rock being drilled needs to be removed in order to gauge the appropriate next steps in the operation.
Normally you'd need to send in a person to take a sample and that's normally dangerous and often expensive, since you need to shore up the rock to insure against cave-ins plus make the hole big enough for the person to function.The MicroCorer is able to form and capture a small sample from any "competent" rock face. The system is fully automatic and once turned on, will drill and extract a 10 mm core sample up to 100 mm in length without further operator input.
According to Boucher, PROMPT required twenty years of "significant time and fiscal investments" before the CSA provided enough money to build the demonstration unit. The final cost for the commercial MicroCorer is expected to be under $50K CDN per unit, a substantial cost savings over current methods of accessing core samples during drilling operations.
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| MicroCorer spec sheet from Deltion Innovations. To view the full document, please click on this link. Graphic c/o Deltion. |
The new tool was rolled-out for review during the recently concluded 2019 annual convention of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), which was held in Toronto, ON from March 3rd - 6th.
As outlined in the March 4th, 2019 post, "The New Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan Stakes its Claim on the Space Industry," the recently released Canadian Minerals and Metals Plan (CMMP), also unveiled at PDAC 2019, discussed the need for the adaption of "new and emerging technologies" from a variety of other industries, including Canada's space industry.
 |
| Chuck Black. |
Chuck Black is the editor of the Commercial Space blog.
The MicroCorer is able to form and capture a small sample from any "competent" rock face. The system is fully automatic and once turned on, will drill and extract a 10 mm core sample up to 100 mm in length without further operator input. NS0-146 dumps
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