MRead Ltd: That’s a Wrap for 2024: MRead’s first full year and working with The HALO Trust

We are absolutely thrilled with The HALO Trust’s Press Release highlighting the potential of our sensors. In its release, The HALO Trust CEO James Cowan states: “I am tremendously excited by the results of these trials in Angola, a place which has always been special to HALO thanks to our history with Princess Diana and her son Prince Harry. But this technology will travel way beyond Angola. With over two million landmines laid in Ukraine since 2022, landmine clearance needs to be faster, safer, and smarter. This new detector will be key to delivering our mission for a mine-free world.” 

The work of humanitarian deminers is critical to enabling shatteredcommunities to recover from the terrible effects of conflict – which may lastdecades. The problem is not going away, as we see in Ukraine, Gaza, and nowSyria, where refugees may be returning to land, homes and farms potentially littered with mines and unexploded ordnance. The threat is very real!

MRead has now successfully tested its next-generation game-changing explosive and drugs detection sensor in a live minefield. This huge step forward is based on CSIRO’s world-leading Magnetic Resonance technology. Cuito Cuanavale in Southern Angola is one of the most challenging and heavily contaminated areas, and passing this acid test is a phenomenal achievement

Looking back, we started 2024 in The HALO Trust Minefields in Cuito Cuanavale in Southern Angola, and we ended the year in The HALO Trust Minefields in Anlong Veng in Cambodia. This essential partnership has enabled us to progress the technology rapidly, addressing the very real issues deminers face.

2024 has also seen us achieve the following:

·     Transition of the CSIRO laboratory detector into a hand-held field deployable detector

·     Transfer of the Minimum Viable Product fromCSIRO to MRead in July 2024

·     Conduct of Lane Trials in Brisbane with CSIRO and EPE in August 2024

·     Successful capital raise for our runway through to 2025

·     Conduct of the HALO Trust field trials inSouthern Angola in live minefields in November 2024.

Our partnerships enable our success, and we are thankful to the following teams:

·      CSIRO under DR David Miljak, who has developed the technology

·      RFC Ambrian, who is at the core of allowing the company to flourish and hasworked with CSIRO over decades to bring CSIRO’s amazing technology into reality

·      Minelab Metal Detectors , whose advice, technical knowledge and global understanding of the environments in which we will operate have been fundamental.

We are also grateful to have received excellent support from a myriad of demining organisations and agencies, including the GenevaInternational Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) and the UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP). In particular, Norwegian People's Aid / Norsk Folkehjelp and MAG(Mines Advisory Group) have illuminated so many of the challenges and requirements we need to address. Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group Team Defence Australia and AustralianTrade and Investment Commission (Austrade) have also been a great support, providing advice, insights and a platform that a start-up such as ours rarely enjoys.

As part of the company’s development, we have been engaging extensively with the wider humanitarian demining organisations, which included:

·     Attendance at the UN’s Angkor Summit for a Mine-Free World in Siem Reap, Cambodia

·     MajorGeneral Cheryl Pearce in the UN Office of Military Affairs in New York, USA

·     Attendedthe Association of the US Army (AUSA) Convention in Washington, DC as part ofTeam Defence Australia

·     AttendedLand Forces International Land Defence Exposition in Melbourne as part ofDefence Team ACT

·     Attendedthe 27^th UN National Directors Meeting in Geneva

·     VisitedThe HALO Trust Headquarters in Dumfries, Scotland and Salisbury

·     Presented at the 20^th International Mine Action Symposium in Cavtat, Croatia.

Our high tempo is a testament to our energy and determination to achieve our vision. Being at the leading edge of a technology dedicated to helping deminers and shattered communities recover in these war-torn areas is just inspiring. The feedback from The HALO Trust deminers in the field trials was phenomenal and will be the core of the future sensor. We do not underestimate the extreme challenges of working in and sustaining the people and equipment in these extremely harsh environments.

A huge thank you to all those who supported and championed us in 2024. We are really excited about what 2025 holds for us as we develop the prototype sensor based on our 2024 learnings and return to Angola with The HALO Trust for extensive field trials before deploying our first production sensors in 2026.


#innovation #scienceandtechnology #humanitarianaid #startups #sensortechnology #humanitariandemining #standwithukraine #landmines #Research #australianmanufacturing #Validationandverification #Testandevaluation

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