IMDEX builds strong platform for growth

Australia’s IMDEX has put itself in a powerful position to outpace its peers in mining’s burgeoning global sub-surface technology market after passing A$500 million in sales, increasing margins and bedding down five significant acquisitions in fiscal 2026.

CEO Paul House said a combination of favourable market conditions and “more growth levers than ever before” provided confidence in IMDEX’s ability to “continue growing above market in FY27” after it reported a 21% year-on-year increase in FY26 revenue to $520 million and 38% rise in EBITDA to $179 million. Net profit was up from $55.2 million to $79.4 million yoy.

Nearly 20% of the FY26 revenue growth was organic, driven by market share gains, rising technology adoption and increased regional market penetration.

IMDEX acquired control of Norway-based Earth Science Analytics, bought 100% of Advanced Logic Technology and its subsidiary Mount Sopris Instruments, and moved to outright ownership of Datarock and Krux Analytics in FY26. The additions made $17 million of partial-year contributions to IMDEX’s top line. CFO Linda Lim said on a full-year equivalent basis the number was more like $51 million of annualised revenue. “As we enter FY27 we have both a stronger core business and a full-year contribution from high-quality additions to the platform,” she said.

IMDEX supplies what it calls “physical technologies” – tools, sensors, fluids and on-site services – and digital technologies, including core logging, geophysics and geological modelling tools, that can all be connected to its cloud-based intelligence platform or hub. Its hub and software revenues constitute platform revenue, which is how the company is now reporting this part of its business.

CFO Linda Lim said this better reflected how customers were engaging with and buying IMDEX products.

She said the reported shift in platform business over the past five years was “a deliberate outcome of our fleet connectivity strategy over many years, which began with IMDEX HUB-IQ [acquired in 2012]”. She said software and platform advisory revenue was also “well positioned for growth, supported by the expanded capabilities acquired during FY26”.

Datarock’s and Krux’s trading revenues were up 34% and 19%, respectively, in FY26, as more IMDEX sites adopted their products.

FY26 “platform revenue” of A$246 million was 47% of total revenue, which House said compared with 33% five years ago (when the group total was $264 million), reflecting increased market “uptake of connected and digital solutions”.

He said the company was well positioned to grow beyond a traditionally dominant mineral exploration market, where spending was up in FY26 on higher commodity prices and exploration company financing. The sector was using technology more to get greater value from the dollars invested.

Operating mine and brownfield site subsurface data generation and analysis built on this theme.

“IMDEX is no longer solely levered to exploration activity,” House said.

“We have built multiple growth pathways being share of wallet, market share gains, market expansion and the structural shift towards new technology adoption within our market.

“What I find particularly encouraging is that all four pathways build on the same platform, the same customer relationships and the same technology capability. That means growth in one area often creates opportunities in another.

“This is something that our customers continue to define and drive and in turn will yield sustainable earnings growth for our shareholders.

“Of particular note is the quality of the revenue growth, which is characterised by ... increasing customer adoption of next-generation technologies, an active demand for technologies that deliver demonstrable lifts in productivity and the continued growth of our integrated physical and digital solutions.

“IMDEX’s two growth engines, drill site technologies and digital Earth knowledge, connect the full data value chain from originating high-quality subsurface data at the drill site through to digital workflows, software analytics and decision intelligence.

“Often our customers are not looking for more data they are looking for more data insights and that is where our integrated platform, which improves decision intelligence for both resource companies and drillers, continues to differentiate IMDEX.”

Meanwhile, the company’s FY26 growth saw it cross the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standard (AASB) S2 tier-one reporting threshold. House said IMDEX strengthened its governance framework, improved emissions data capture and completed a climate risk assessment and scenario analysis. It also “invested heavily in the link between sustainability and productivity for our customers”.

“Many of our technologies directly help customers improve their productivity and reduce waste, whether that is through improved drilling performance or substantial water savings,” he said.

Subsequent to year-end IMDEX launched an industry-leading 24-week parental leave policy.

Chief people, communications and sustainability officer Kiah Grafton said IMDEX’s workforce had doubled to more than 1050 people in the past five years and was now spread over more than 40 countries. Nearly two-thirds of the company’s employees were outside Australia. Grafton said some lived and worked in countries with limited or no automatic entitlement to paid parental leave.

“When we talk about the workforce of the future we’re talking about attracting and retaining talented people globally and we are in a highly competitive market,” she said.

“Increasingly, people are looking for employers whose policies support different life stages. So not only life stages with regards to caring responsibilities for children but we also are cognisant of having an aging workforce too and are looking at alternative policies to help support all life stages.

“For this policy in particular it’s recognising that caring responsibilities can be shared and so enhancing our policy reflects the workforce we’re trying to build rather than the workforce of the past.

“We’re trying to create an environment where our people can build long-term careers while balancing family commitments and they don’t need to make a choice.

“In terms of the global lens, given the fact that we have employees in more than 40 countries we wanted to ensure that everyone had access to meaningful levels of parental leave support regardless of where they're based. While some countries, such as the Scandinavian countries, already provide strong statutory benefits, others provide far less. In fact, none. So we felt there was real value in establishing a consistent global baseline that reflected our values and commitment to all employees, regardless of which country you’re actually living in or residing in.

“That consistency is particularly important in our organisation because we do have employees working together across borders and cultures on a daily basis and roughly 65% of our workforce are offshore. Providing a consistent parental leave experience reflects our belief that support for families should not depend on where someone happens to live or work.”