Tag Archives: mine design software

Maptek and Minnovare combine expertise to improve underground mining accuracy

Explosives and blasting, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining services, Mining techniques, , , , , , ,

Maptek says it and drill and blast technology provider, Minnovare, are delivering streamlined drill and blast solutions to help underground miners optimise their operations.

A project recently completed for an Australia gold miner is a great example of how collaboration between these technology providers can result in better outcomes for mining companies.

Linking Maptek Vulcan™ design and modelling software with Minnovare’s new Production Optimiser system for underground production drilling has streamlined “the connection between design and as-built for more accurate outcomes”, the two companies said.

Ring design data, including images, can now be exported from Vulcan and easily uploaded directly to Minnovare CORE – the Production Optimiser software interface – through scripting provided by Maptek. The Vulcan−Production Optimiser combination helps ensure that drilling follows design. It also reduces the need for re-work, as feedback on accuracy and compliance is available to both the rig operator and the technical engineering team using Vulcan, according to the companies.

Production Optimiser combines advanced rig alignment hardware with drill data capture software, substantially reducing blasthole deviation and average rig setup times, according to Minnovare. “This leads to optimum charge patterns and blasts, with a host of flow-on productivity benefits for an operation, including improved ore recovery, reduced average dilution and a faster stope cycle time,” the company said.

Maptek says it has 40 years’ experience in developing technology and systems that solve daily challenges for global mining companies. “Investment in people, motivated by excellence, innovation and continual improvement, allows delivery of systems that help integrate and streamline mining processes into a single source of technical data to inform decision making,” Maptek said. This includes the scripting that bridged the gap between Vulcan and Production Optimiser.

Minnovare developed the Production Optimiser, which was released in June 2018, in close collaboration with leading Australian gold miners, Gold Fields and Evolution Mining. Since its release the new technology has been taken up rapidly within industry, with leaders such as Northern Star Resources signing an official Collaboration Agreement with Minnovare in August 2018. This has seen the gold miner use it in both Western Australia and, more recently, in Alaska at its Pogo operation.

Analysis that Minnovare has conducted of in-hole survey data proves that circumstances prior to drilling account for up to 70% of blasthole deviation, the company said. This was contrary to the prevailing industry perception that in-hole deviation was the primary contributor.

IMDEX’s ioGAS to feature in Micromine 2020 3D modelling and mine design software

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MICROMINE and IMDEX have agreed to collaborate on the next release of Micromine 2020, with the latter company’s ioGAS solution being incorporated into the 3D modelling and mine design software.

This collaboration, bringing together detailed geoscience analytics with sophisticated 3D modelling and mine design software, will enhance the geological modelling workflow, according to MICROMINE.

According to IMDEX, ioGAS is a leading exploratory data analysis software application developed specifically for the resources industry. “Traditional methods to analyse results would take many hours and is prone to human error; ioGAS can generate accurate results in a fraction of the time. Over the past decade, a wide range of visual analytics and advanced quantitative tools have been developed to help you obtain a greater insight into the underlying structure of your data,” the company said.

The two companies have been working together for several months to integrate output from IMDEX’s ioGAS solution, according to MICROMINE.

“The collaboration means geoscientists will be able to directly import ioGAS (.gas) files into Micromine 2020 software to map and model geological domains,” MICROMINE said.

Micromine Product Strategy Manager, Mark Gabbitus, said the ability to import the files and related geological and geochemical interpretative analysis into Micromine 2020 was a boon for both companies and their thousands of global software users.

“MICROMINE and IMDEX recognise it’s in everyone’s interests to enable the efficient transfer of data between packages,” he said.

“Integrating software with third-party systems like ioGAS not only makes our client’s jobs easier but advances the industry, which MICROMINE values as a thought-leader in the METS sector.”

Micromine 2020 might still be in development, but Gabbitus confirmed some of the key features that would integrate with ioGAS included:

  • In-built ioGAS symbol library so that data imported into Micromine looks exactly as it did in ioGAS;
  • Down hole data that can brought from an ioGAS .gas file directly into Micromine as points where attributes (eg material type) can be modelled or displayed alongside geological logging to validate boundaries and contacts; and;
  • Down hole data displays that effectively show how geochemical properties differ between logged geological units.

MICROMINE added: “In Micromine 2020, drill hole traces can be easily created from down hole points contained in an ioGAS.gas file. This data is then saved as a drill hole database in Micromine.”

With over 10 years of development, IMDEX’s ioGAS software has resulted in optimised workflows and easy to use tools that incorporate industry best practise in interpretive techniques, according to MICROMINE. The exploratory data analysis software offers detection of patterns, anomalies and relationships in geoscience data. With over 350 commercial clients and 20 government organisation users, ioGAS has established itself as a global market leader, MICROMINE said.

Dave Lawie, IMDEX Chief Geoscientist, said: “It is exciting to combine the benefits of these market-leading software packages to provide additional value for our clients. This integration offers a seamless integration of ioGAS files and related interpretative analysis directly into MICROMINE 2020.”

Last month, MICROMINE said Micromine 2020 will no longer support installation or use on computers with a 32-bit processor.

Intelligent mine design solution on its way from RPMGlobal

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RPMGlobal Holdings says it plans on releasing before the end of the year an innovative enterprise Intelligent mine Design (ID) solution, which will be fully integrated within RPM’s Intelligent Mining (IM) suite of products.

RPM’s CEO and Managing Director, Richard Mathews, said: “A lot of the products currently available in the market are based upon 30-year-old principles and the same underlying code base which has been adapted, reformed, tailored and customised over the years. Our approach to this new intelligent design solution is to start with a clean slate and build a solution utilising the latest enterprise architecture and technologies.”

The current focus of development for RPM’s ID solution is not on replacing the various entrenched third-party mine design solutions in the market, RPMGlobal said. “Rather, RPM’s focus has been to build on the decades of mining experience from its consulting and advisory businesses in order to produce a truly agile solution to support rapid scenario generation and optimal mine design decision making.”

Mathews said: “It is our strong belief that it is time the mining industry is provided with an intelligent, parametric design solution built upon, and utilising the very latest software technology and enterprise architecture.

“RPM has, to this point, elected not to develop its own mine design software and instead focused on ‘open integration’ with other third-party design applications. This approach was built on the assumption that third-party vendors would allow the free flow of data between applications and across the enterprise. The catalyst for RPM building its own design solution has been driven by the realisation that other suppliers to the industry have inherent limitations around enterprise interoperability. Furthermore, as the engineering process ‘starts with design’, a comprehensive RPM suite of planning products needs to include ID solutions in order to round out RPM’s established suite of integrated solutions.”

According to Mathews, RPM has been a data consumer of all of the established third-party mine design product vendors for decades. “We have ‘seen it all’ and, as a result, have a good understanding of the key ‘pain points’ currently being faced by mining engineers when using these traditional mine design solutions. Our goal with this new product suite is to address these key issues in a user-friendly and technically advanced manner. We will, of course, continue to work closely with the established third-party mine design software vendors and promote open standards with the intent of offering mining companies a real choice in a plug-and-play enterprise environment.”

RPMGlobal already has the architecture with their existing Enterprise Planning Framework and plenty of the required functionality from the acquisition of the rights to use the Mine 2-4D solution, it said. “The company’s intention is to now work with the industry to build an enterprise application that is fully open, interoperable and will harness the latest technologies bringing everything together into a simplified, enterprise, commercial-off-the-shelf product,” the company said.

Mathews concluded: “A number of our major customers who have seen the approach we are taking during pre-release demonstrations held under confidential terms are very excited with the progress to date and want to be involved in the development programme. Our advisory business, who are end users of third-party tools every day, are also providing invaluable input and insight into the product make-up.”