Dassault Systèmes has released the latest version of GEOVIA Surpac, the geology and mine planning software application that is used worldwide. Surpac 6.6 provides powerful underground engineering tools that are especially suited for the design of stope shapes. The new Stope Design Tools module enables underground engineers and designers “to accomplish stope design tasks efficiently with an easy, simple and fast stope design process.” The module includes two tools: interactive Stope Designer and Stope Slicer. The interactive Stope Designer tool offers easy and rapid comparison of the geometry on successive planes so that it is easy for the engineer to ensure the resultant designs are practical and achievable. The Stope Slicer tool quickly and easily produces practical, tactical mining shapes, by dividing any solid into smaller solids that represent the stoping units to be mined and the pillars that must remain to satisfy safety requirements.
Additional release highlights include productivity improvements for plotting, making it dramatically faster and easier to include tabulated data on plans and sections created by Surpac; as well as new enhancements to Surpac’s digitising and 3D CAD tools, providing benefits to underground and open pit mining operations by enabling more efficient work practices with fewer mouse clicks to achieve better results. There are also numerous customer-requested product enhancements that provide for a better user experience and increased productivity.
Recognition of Dassault Systèmes customer Dundee Precious Metals in terms of its innovative technology approach at the Chelopech mine in Bulgaria came recently in the form of the 2013 Ingenious Award, presented by the Information Technology Association of Canada. The Ingenious Awards program “celebrates enterprises that demonstrate measurable evidence of productivity improvement, efficiency gains, revenue growth, overall business transformation or other organisational outcomes through the use of technology.” Dundee Precious Metals Inc. (TSX: DPM) is a Canadian-based international mining company engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development, mining and processing of precious metals properties.
“We are proud of Dundee Precious Metals, and the role we played as one of its solutions providers in helping it achieve its vision of aggressively increasing production, while at the same time reducing costs, at its Chelopech mine in Bulgaria,” said Rick Moignard, CEO, GEOVIA, Dassault Systèmes. “Dundee’s ‘Taking the Lid Off’ initiative at Chelopech put it at the forefront in leading change in the mining industry to utilise technology to drive efficiency and productivity gains. The mine has been able to go from producing 1 Mt to 2 Mt a year purely as a result of operational improvements, without the addition of any new mobile mining equipment.”
Dassault Systèmes’ GEOVIA InSite™ mine production management and GEOVIA GEMS™ geology and mine planning software applications form key components of the technological backbone at the Chelopech mine. By integrating with other vendors’ systems, mining equipment, and an underground Wi-Fi network, the mine is able to visualise its operations in real time. The benefits realised include:
- Production doubled and unit costs reduced by 44%
- Problems identified without delay
- Real time equipment health monitoring
- Resources utilised to optimise shift results
- All activities in the mine can be viewed as they happen
