Newmont Mining Corporation

Denver, Colorado

For more than 60 years, it's been the responsibility of Newmont's Geophysical Research and Development (R&D) team to focus on exploration technology and foster a legacy of innovation and competitive advantage at the company.

Recently, Newmont awarded five current members of our Geophysical R&D team with the Global Exploration Solutions (GES) Innovation Award. The team worked diligently over a four-year period to develop one of the most innovative technologies available: the Newmont Distributed IP Data Acquisition System, otherwise referred to as NEWDAS.

Used to identify and delineate mineral deposits typically found during the early stages of an exploration program, NEWDAS is helping Newmont make discoveries faster with less drilling and reduced costs.

NEWDAS was specifically created to improve the efficiency, resolution and depth of investigation associated with collecting Induced Polarization (IP) data which is used to identify and map the geometry of sulfide-bearing or
silicified ore deposits.

Proprietary to Newmont, the key distinction between NEWDAS and conventional IP systems is its ability to carry out true 3-D surveys in an efficient manner with a distributed array, which acquires, transmits, centralizes, and displays the data from multiple locations or nodes arranged in a structured or randomized configuration.

While some modern commercial systems can provide similar high-quality data and depth of exploration, they are lacking in terms of cost effectiveness, availability and their capacity to acquire 3-D data. Newmont's Geophysical R&D team is the first to develop an electrical surveying system that incorporates wireless communications and Internet-type networking, coupled with 3-D modeling using a parallelized computing architecture, for interpretation of the data. These and other features of NEWDAS result in high-resolution images of the subsurface based on data that are cost effective to acquire.

"Think of it as preparing for surgery," explains Perry Eaton, chief geoscientist. "You want to have an accurate picture of what's inside before you decide to cut, or in this case, drill. You don't want to perform the surgery if you don't have to and, if you do, you want to be operating in the right place, so you use some form of scanning technology to gain a better understanding of what's inside so that you can make an informed decision. This is essentially what we're doing with this new technology on a schedule and with a system that suits Newmont's purposes."

NEWDAS performed its first survey operations last year at two sites in Nevada, Buffalo Valley and Copper Basin. Following a successful outcome at these initial sites, the technology was applied this spring at Sandman and Greater Leeville/Turf. During this time, Geophysical Operations staff was being trained to run NEWDAS. The team expects to have the system carrying out surveys in Africa and South America in the latter half of this year and plans to build another system to help meet the rising demand for this new technology.

A special thank you to Bob Anderson, Steve Queen, Ian Mackenzie, David Wynn, and Greg Scrivener for their innovative expertise and dedication in developing the NEWDAS technology. Through their creativity, determination to excel and commitment to action, they exemplify Newmont's Value to promote positive change by encouraging innovation and applying agreed upon practices. Congratulations once again to the Geophysical R&D team.

September 15, 2010