Tag Archives: Deswik.CAD

Emesent’s Hovermap to provide Deswik with complete underground mine picture

Emesent has partnered with leading software developer Deswik to, it says, enable mining companies to incorporate high-quality data captured in inaccessible locations into their mine plans and surveys.

Emesent is a leader in drone autonomy, LiDAR mapping, and data analytics. Founded in 2018 through a spin out of CSIRO, Emesent has since built a reputation for delivering high-quality data capture in the mining, infrastructure, survey and mapping industries, it said.

The company’s Hovermap is a drone autonomy and LiDAR mapping payload. It uses the LiDAR data and advanced algorithms on-board, in real time, to provide reliable and accurate localisation and navigation without the need for GPS.

“This feature makes it ideally suited to map hazardous or underground environments where traditional data capture methods are difficult and dangerous,” the company said.

Deswik, meanwhile, is a global consulting and technology company delivering efficiency-focused solutions to all sectors within the mining industry. Its mine planning and management platforms are used in over 500 mine operations around the world.

The two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to integrate their solutions to provide a more comprehensive solution to the resources sector, Emesent said.

In the first instance, a co-designed, semi-automated workflow has been created to import Hovermap data into Deswik’s design and solids modelling platform, Deswik.CAD. This workflow enables users to translate the Hovermap data within minutes, creating usable surfaces, solids and point clouds for as-built surveys, volume reporting and design updates, Emesent said.

“The data from Emesent’s Hovermap scanner can be imported into Deswik and visualised using any of the attributes that have been captured in the scan,” Stephen Rowles, Deswik Survey Product Manager, said. “The scan can be filtered, modified, and clipped to suit the user’s requirements before being processed in one or more of the dedicated functions for point clouds.”

Emesent CEO, Dr Stefan Hrabar, said the two companies were committed to working together to help mining companies increase the value of their models, by providing surveyors and planners with more accurate data from inaccessible areas.

“We’re excited about collaborating with another market-leading technology vendor in the resources sector,” Dr Hrabar said. “Integrating our respective solutions will assist customers to boost productivity and improve outputs.”

Deswik Partner Manager, Patrick Doig, said recent global events had piqued customer interest in technologies that allowed technical teams to collect high-quality data without the need to be physically present on site.

A partnership between Deswik and Emesent empowers their mutual and future customers to simplify processes, gain additional efficiencies and make value add decisions to their operations, Doig added.

Deswik looks to take guess work out of infill hole placement with Deswik.DHO

Australia-based mining software developer Deswik says it has launched a new tool to help automate infill drill hole planning.

Deswik Drillhole Optimizer (Deswik.DHO) is a module for the company’s Deswik.CAD design platform, which optimises the position of infill drill holes to maximise the uplift in resource classification within a given budget, the company says.

“Deswik.DHO allows geologists to apply an automated, optimised process to planning their infill drilling programs, for both open pit and underground operations,” the company says. “By quickly running multiple scenarios, geologists have more time to analyse the outputs and select the highest value drilling plan.”

New drillhole designs are created based on parameters including drilling budget, orebody characteristics, location of existing holes, available drilling locations and the projected per meter drilling cost.

The application is user configurable to assist the optimisation process, with settings including:

  • Simple geometric, ellipse or Kriging-based sample selection criteria;
  • Specified anisotropy for each domain to influence the direction of drilling;
  • Drill rig physical characteristics and costs;
  • Support for pre-collaring and wedge holes; and
  • Availability of surface or underground pads.

Deswik.GeoTools Product Manager, Nick Anderson, said Deswik.DHO automates what was, historically, a very manual and subjective process.

“Geologists would typically look at their resource model to see where drilling had previously taken place and make an educated guess, based on previous experience, as to where it should be carried out next,” Anderson said.

Deswik.DHO adds rigour and reliability to the process, by using data in the resource model to pick ‘gaps’ where confidence in the model is low, the company says.

Anderson added: “The tool assists mining companies to maximise their return on drilling programs, by placing new holes in locations where they’ll improve the value of the model, while ensuring the program remains within budget.

“Once an optimised program has been selected, with one click users can create a schedule for the drill program. Creating a schedule allows us to turn the design into a practical program where users can model drilling rates, assign specific resources and create dependencies which all contribute to creating a realistic drill program ready for execution.”

Deswik Managing Director, Matt Chilcott, said Deswik.DHO reaffirmed Deswik’s commitment to developing value-boosting tools for technical services teams.

“We’ve seen significant market demand for geological mapping applications which integrate with Deswik’s mine planning and management solutions,” Chilcott said. “Our focus is on working collaboratively with the mining sector to ensure all our tools have a strong use case and will deliver a measurable return on investment, in terms of productivity, efficiency and profitability.”

Deswik.DHO will be launched in June 2020, the company said.

Deswik furthers Latin America mining software presence with MCB deal in Brazil

Deswik, the Australia-based mining software developer, has stepped up its overseas expansion push by taking a minority stake in its longstanding Brazilian reseller partner, MCB Services and Minerals.

MCB has been Deswik’s exclusive reseller partner in Brazil since 2012. Established in 2006 in Belo Horizonte, it sells mining software and services to local customers including Nexa, Vale, AngloGold Ashanti, Yamana, Kinross and many others.

Deswik says it is expanding its presence across South America and opened offices in Chile and Peru in 2015 and 2018, respectively. Sales across the continent accounted for 27% of Deswik’s turnover in 2018.

Deswik Managing Director, Matt Chilcott, said Brazil was a key growth market, which contributed 8% of Deswik’s global software turnover in 2018.

Acquiring a stake in MCB would cement Deswik’s presence in the country and allow it to offer local clients enhanced technical support and greater input into the Deswik development and roadmap process, Chilcott said.

“MCB is a like-minded company with an approach to servicing the mining industry that’s very similar to our own,” he said. “Our culture and values are extremely compatible. That’s why we’ve worked together so successfully for such a long time. We couldn’t find a better partner and we’re delighted to be able to formalise our relationship in this way.”

Chilcott said he was upbeat about Deswik’s prospects in the region: “Brazil is a large and mature market and we think we’ve only just scratched the surface in terms of demand. We’re excited about working with the MCB team to help more customers in the region experience the productivity and efficiency gains the Deswik suite of products can deliver.”

As part of the deal, MCB will be rebranded as Deswik Brazil.

MCB’s senior management, Mauro Servulo, Cesar Machado and Francisco Bittencourt, will remain at the helm of Deswik Brazil and local customers will continue to receive support from the company’s 35-strong team of geology and mine engineering consultants, Deswik said.

Within six years, MCB has grown from six to 35 people, according to Deswik.

In addition to having 11 offices across Australia, North and South America, Canada, Africa and Europe, Deswik works with a select group of technology, education, reseller and certified partners.

Deswik Partner Manager, Patrick Doig, said on these partnerships: “Fostering a healthy eco-system of partners has allowed us to extend the reach of our software internationally and provide customers with a consistent ‘Deswik experience’ wherever they are in the world.”

Founded in 2007, Deswik develops specialist solutions covering all aspects of mine planning. Its flagship suite of products, Deswik.CAD, Deswik.Sched, Deswik.LHS and Deswik. MDM, are used by miners on six continents, across the underground metals, open-pit metals, open-pit coal and underground coal sectors.

Deswik employs a team of 300 across 13 offices worldwide and derives more than 70% of its revenue from overseas markets.