Another Award for the Development of SQUIDs for Mineral Exploration
March 25, 2010 (HE43). We are pleased to report that Dr. Cathy Foley of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Australia, received recently the NSW Telestra Business Innovation Award for Business Women. The award was presented to Dr. Foley for the development of high-Tc SQUIDs for mineral exploration. These SQUIDs are used in the portable exploration system LANDTEM based on the TEM (Transient Electromagnetics) method, which was developed by CSIRO in cooperation with major exploration companies BHP and Falconbridge, and later licensed to Outer-Rim Development, a small start-up company. Exploration using LANDTEM resulted already in the discovery of ore deposits estimated at several billion US$ worth.
This is the second award for successful development and implementation of mineral exploration systems using SQUID detectors. We previously reported on the Outstanding Achievement Award bestowed in 2007 by the publishers of the renowned Mining Journal upon Dr. Hans-Georg Meyer representing IPHT (the Institute for Photonic Technologies of Jena, Germany). IPHT developed the Full Tensor Airborne Magnetic Gradiometer surveying system, see HE10. The IPHT system “Jessy Star” is using low-Tc SQUIDs, which are less susceptible to noise induced by motion in Earth’s field than the high-Tc SQUIDs.
The second award in less than three years confirms the growing importance of exploration systems using SQUIDs for mineral exploration worldwide.