From Mars to McIlvenna Bay: How ECORE is Transforming Mineral Exploration with LIBS

Blog May 7, 2025

Published by: François Doucet, Ph.D.
CEO, ELEMISSION

As global demand for critical minerals intensifies and environmental scrutiny sharpens, the mining industry faces a dual challenge: deliver faster, cleaner results. From exploration to remediation, traditional approaches to geochemical and mineralogical analysis are no longer enough. The delays caused by off-site laboratories and the limitations of older imaging technologies like near infrared hyperspectral scanning and XRF core logging are slowing down critical decision-making at a time when speed and sustainability are non-negotiable.

At ELEMISSION, we’ve spent more than a decade tackling this challenge head-on. Our latest article in Canadian Mining Journal outlines how our ECORE technology — built on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) — is revolutionizing core scanning and ore body knowledge across the mining lifecycle.

A Technology Inspired by Space Missions — Now Reimagined for Earth

LIBS gained international attention with NASA’s ChemCam onboard the Mars Curiosity rover. That same principle — laser ablation followed by optical emission spectroscopy — is now central to ELEMISSION’s approach. But we’ve taken it far beyond its original limitations.

With ECORE, our full-scale and mobile scanning systems deliver:

Granular mineralogical and chemical maps in real-time
2000+ readings per second across kilometres of drill core
Automated workflows that eliminate human logging errors
AI-assisted classification across the full periodic table

Case Study: Foran Mining’s McIlvenna Bay Project

A powerful example of ECORE’s real-world impact is our partnership with Foran Mining Corp. at their McIlvenna Bay project in Saskatchewan — Canada’s first carbon-neutral mine under construction.

Over just 12 weeks, ECORE scanned 17,254 metres of drill core, converting high-resolution data into digital twins of the orebody. This unprecedented visualization enabled Foran’s team to:

Map alteration and ore zones with precision
Direct excavation toward the highest-value regions
Reduce the energy and cost associated with overgrinding
Monitor critical elements like Cu, Zn, Li, and contaminants in real-time

As Johan Krebs, Foran’s Principal Geoscientist – Orebody Knowledge, put it:

“What ELEMISSION has done with their LIBS systems is bring the speed up to a place where that wasn’t imaginable just five years ago. It’s only a matter of time before the market latches on that there is something unique here.”

Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition — One Core at a Time

ECORE is more than a scanner — it’s a strategic enabler. From supporting metallurgical calibration to reducing tailings and improving permitting timelines, our technology is designed to: