Portable gold detector company carries home gold innovation award

Gold detector company Portable PPB has taken out the top prize at the WA Innovator of the Year awards, now running for 17 years and offering a total prize pool of $220,000.

According to its website, the company is based on the detectORE technology (invented at CSIRO in 2016), incorporated in 2017, began R&D the year after, and had the commercial release of its detectORE-Au product last year.

Portable PPB says that its product is based on x-ray fluorescence and “provides geologists the ability to detect gold in samples, anywhere, down to low parts per billion level”.

It was the overall winner among a field of 17 finalists.

“It was a very tough job for the judges to choose the winners from such a wide range of amazing high tech and innovative solutions and full credit to Portable PPB Pty Ltd for coming out on top with their gold detector,” said state innovation minister Stephen Dawson in a statement on Thursday.

“All participants are well deserved and for me as the State Minister for Innovation, it’s fantastic to see such a variety of innovation solutions that are being developed here in WA.”

A list of category winners is reproduced below

• Rio Tinto Emerging Innovation Category Winner – Earflo for their device which treats chronic ear infections for children at home;
• Rio Tinto Growth Innovation Category Winner – Leisure Technologies Pty Ltd for their wireless towing and anti-theft system;
• Business News ‘Great for the State’ Platinum Award – Reliis Ltd for their Aqueous Quetiapine solution;
• Wesfarmers Wellbeing Platinum Award -Inspiring Holdings Pty Ltd for their Novel Universal Spacer System; and
• Woodside Energy Platinum Award for Energy Innovation – Innovation Energy Solutions for their autonomous solar cleaning robotics.

Picture: credit portableppb.com/our-technology