Tag Archives: Matt Chilcott

Sandvik completes acquisition of Polymathian, strengthens Deswik mine planning offering

Automation, Communications in mining, IoT, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , ,

Sandvik has completed the previously announced acquisition of Polymathian Industrial Mathematics, in the process becoming a part of its Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions’ Business Unit Deswik.

Polymathian’s solutions for automated decision making and optimisation complements Deswik’s suite of mine planning software and consulting services while remaining OEM agnostic, the OEM said. Deswik, a leading mine planning software company, was previously acquired by Sandvik in April 2022.

Matt Chilcott, CEO of Deswik, said: “We are very excited to welcome Polymathian to the Deswik family. Our employees have been the driving force behind our success. Introducing the talent, experience, and innovative technologies of the Polymathian team will position us to deliver even higher value to mining operations globally.”

The addition of Polymathian to Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions broadens the offering and is another step towards enhancing the productivity of the mining customers’ value chain, it said. Combined with Deswik’s software solutions, the acquisition creates a “unique digital portfolio” that will help customers optimise their data driven operations.

Polymathian’s co-Founders, Dr Ben Hollis, Jonathon White and Steven Donaldson, will join Deswik’s senior management team and continue to lead the development of Polymathian’s software suite and technology platform.

Hollis said: “We are thrilled to be joining the Sandvik Group and believe that our combined expertise will lead to great advances in the field of data analytics for the mining industry. We look forward to leveraging Sandvik’s global reach and resources to bring our software solutions to even more customers around the world.”

Deswik teams up with Alicanto Labs to solve mine design and scheduling challenges

Automation, IoT, Mining software, , , , , , , , , ,

Deswik has partnered with Alicanto Labs, associated with Universidad Adolfo Ibañez (UAI), in Chile, to release Deswik.GO, a strategic design and scheduling tool for open-pit mines.

This partnership, which started in 2016, was supported by a grant from the Chilean government and the success of the collaboration was also recognised through the awarding of the Chilean National Prize of Technologic Transfer in 2017.

UAI had previously developed an academic software application to solve the long standing Open-Pit Mine Production Scheduling (OPMPS) problem and the software was successfully used by a number of Tier 1 mining companies, according to Deswik.

“Deswik’s experience in delivering quality commercial mine planning software means that these innovations have been integrated into an easy to use, comprehensive package that will enable the entire industry to realise maximum value from their deposits,” the company said.

Deswik.GO allows strategic mine planners to rapidly optimise the mine shape, phases and sequence for both greenfield sites and existing operations. The fast evaluation time allows planners to evaluate multiple options and see the lifetime effects of planning decisions and thereby determine the mine plan that will deliver the maximum value, the company said.

Supported by their existing in-house optimisation experts and developers, Deswik.GO allows the user to:

  • Rapidly generate optimised pit shells that take into account the time value of money and dynamically determine the best destination for a parcel of material;
  • Generate mining phases using mathematical techniques;
  • Optimise the schedule of the generated or pre-designed phases;
  • Optimise the destination schedule for a mining schedule that has previously been determined; and
  • Analyse the outputs of the schedules with integrated reports and visualiser.

Deswik.GO Product Manager, Catherine Mortimer, said the application made it possible for planners to visualise the cascade of consequences that could result from a planning decision, or a variation to an existing plan.

Historically, obtaining such insights would have been time consuming and expensive – and called for the use of multiple software programs.

“The work that mine planners do involves multi-million and billion dollar decisions,” Mortimer said. “Deswik.GO is a single solution that makes it easier for them to evaluate and audit those decisions.”

Deswik.GO is interoperable with Deswik.CAD and other modules in the Deswik range. Extra value can be unlocked by pairing Deswik.GO with Deswik.SPD – its new automated pit design module – to rapidly generate phase designs with ramps, benches and berms, the company said. It can also be used on a standalone basis.

Deswik Managing Director, Matt Chilcott, said Deswik.GO was evidence of Deswik’s commitment to helping mine planners maximise the value of their projects.

“Our focus is on developing solutions and tools which enable data driven decision making across the mining landscape,” Chilcott said.

“The Deswik team has deep knowledge and lived experience of the mining sector and we continue to translate that into technologies that boost productivity and enable companies to achieve the optimum return on investment.”

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

Automation, IoT, Mineral exploration, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , ,

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.