Banfield, Wick say ‘new environment’ in mining encouraging for start-ups such as EMT
Fred Banfield and Susan Wick spent decades building Mintec before it was sold to Sweden’s Hexagon AB in 2014 and seemed to be enjoying their retirement. So it’s clear it took a different type of business opportunity in what Banfield describes as a “new environment” for mining software development to draw them back into the fold.
Eclipse Mining Technologies has an office 6-7 miles away from where Hexagon established its global mining headquarters on East Congress Street in central Tucson after buying a bunch of mining tech firms, including Mintec.
Mintec, formed in 1970, was the oldest in the old guard of mining and exploration software companies picked off by diversified international tech groups looking to drill into the mining market. Few remain independent.
“Retirement is boring,” Eclipse chair Banfield has said. He re-united with Wick more than two years ago to lend vast experience in the mining software market to a start-up team looking to add to Tucson’s growing reputation as a global mining technology hub.
Wick, CEO of Eclipse, describes the company’s flagship product, SourceOne, as a “universal mining industry platform”, contrasting it with the product platforms still being marketed by various mining software vendors.