Tag Archives: RPMGlobal

RPMGlobal seeks to align short- and long-term mine planning with Attain

Communications in mining, IoT, Mining services, Mining software, , , ,

RPMGlobal has broadened its software optimisation suite with the launch of Attain, a solution that, the company says, helps mine planners maintain alignment between their long-term and short-term production schedules and improve the net present value (NPV) of their operations.

The company explained: “The dynamic nature of mining operations creates a high degree of uncertainty across many different elements. Unexpected events often arise which require mine planners to reschedule their mine plan. Should the short-term mine plan deviate too far off course from the long-term plan then value can be eroded by the failure to achieve the strategic long-term goals.”

Attain is a software solution that solves the challenge of mine planning horizon misalignment by ensuring operational mine planning is systematically aligned with the long-term plan, resulting in optimised short-term schedules and improved NPV, RPMGlobal claims.

Once a schedule becomes misaligned with the longer-term plan, Attain will produce feasible, optimised short-range schedules aligned with the long-range schedule. These alternatives are offered to the mine planner who is then able to review and selects the preferred short-range schedule.

Attain targets the two-to-six-month planning horizon and builds a short-term schedule that considers the actual results to-date while maintaining alignment with the long-term plan, it says.

“With a highly intuitive user interface, the user simply selects their preferred long-term plan which then becomes Attain’s optimisation objective,” RPMGlobal added.

RPMGlobal Chief Executive Officer, Richard Mathews, said: “Short-term planners are always reacting to events that cause a deviation from the mine plan but they often don’t have a way of knowing what the unintended consequences of the resulting re-planning decisions are on the life of the mine.

“With Attain, users can make informed decisions while adjusting the short-term plan knowing that the long-term plan objectives are being met. Attain complements all mine planning tools and processes that mining operations use.”

Mathews said the team were excited to launch the Attain solution to the market and would be seeking feedback from early adopters to prioritise future development.

RPMGlobal introduces ‘industry first’ Hybrid Scheduling tool to XPAC Solutions

Automation, Mining services, Mining software, , , , , , , , ,

RPMGlobal has unveiled its next evolution of mine scheduling software with the latest release of its leading suite of scheduling products, XPAC Solutions.

The latest release includes speed and performance upgrades and functionality and architectural improvements designed to provide the user with additional agility.

However, it is the introduction of Hybrid Scheduling in XPAC 3.1 that is already generating excitement, according to the company.

Hybrid Scheduling is, RPM claims, an industry first that provides users with the flexibility of manual scheduling, together with the time savings and ease of automated scheduling.

For many years, XPAC Solutions have allowed users to start scheduling manually then seamlessly transition to automatic scheduling at any point. With Hybrid Scheduling, users can define the high-level strategy, such as the timing of shovel moves or opening of a new pit and leave the AutoScheduler to work out the detail.

The Hybrid Scheduling functionality includes a major update to the user interface that completely turns the traditional iterative scheduling workflow on its head, according to RPM.

Users no longer need to process the entire schedule every time they make an adjustment to the configuration. They can now step through the schedule incrementally, pausing at key milestones and refining the schedule as they go.

With most scheduling software products on the market requiring users to choose one of either manual or automatic mode, XPAC Solutions’ Hybrid Scheduling functionality gives mine planners the best of both worlds – the ability to schedule both manually and automatically which can be used across all solutions in any combination, RPM says.

RPMGlobal Chief Technology Officer, Paul Beesley, said the release of XPAC 3.1 represented a major step-change in the industry’s approach to planning and scheduling.

“XPAC Solutions 3.1 gives mine planners more flexibility and capability than ever before which is critical for the dynamic environment in which mines operate,” he said.

“Key scheduling decisions can be made manually, while the detail of how those decisions will be achieved is determined automatically. Importantly, all three methods are performed simultaneously in an interactive, highly visual environment that integrates 3D animation, Gantt charts and task sequences.

“Planners can pause the schedule at any point and visualise the status of the mine and key equipment so it’s much faster to build practical, efficient dig sequences for all major equipment.”

The latest upgrade to XPAC Solutions includes major speed and performance enhancements across the process. Data compaction and caching techniques make it much faster to load complex 3D data into memory and virtually eliminates any further delays when the plot is revisited, the company says.

Among other improvements, the new version allows delays associated with equipment relocations to be inserted automatically with durations based on the distance that must be travelled.

RPMGlobal’s enterprise mining software solutions win SAP seal of approval

IoT, Mining services, Mining software, , , , ,

RPMGlobal says it has demonstrated its ongoing commitment to its SAP partnership and providing interoperable, enterprise software solutions to the mining industry after receiving an SAP integration certification for its enterprise product offerings.

The integration green light was provided by SAP certifying that RPM’s enterprise solutions can integrate with SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Extended Edition using standard integration technologies. These certifications further support RPM’s development of cloud enabled solutions, the company said.

RPM and SAP have been working together for well over a decade and RPM secured the latest designation following a detailed process whereby separately deployable components were put through stringent qualification procedures to earn the integration approval, it explained. This entailed RPM’s integration connectors and product architecture being scrutinised by SAP’s development laboratory.

The SAP certification is a significant indication of the technical alignment and interoperability capabilities between the solutions, according to RPM. It will will enable the exchange of information between SAP and RPM’s enterprise product offerings which span the entire mine lifecycle, from design and scheduling, through to maintenance and finance.

Paul Beesley, RPM’s Chief Technology Officer, said the SAP certification was a significant endorsement of the company’s quality technical infrastructure which underpins its enterprise offerings.

“RPM remains committed to a robust software integration strategy that builds complimentary products to support the SAP technology stack,” he said. “This enables our customers to have a smooth and direct flow of business data between SAP solutions and our software offerings so it’s very rewarding to receive this additional certification.”

With more mining operations implementing digital transformation initiatives, connecting disparate systems to foster the exchange of critical information is an industry imperative, Beesley added.

With enterprise integration forming a core part of RPM’s philosophy from the beginning, Beesley said the recent certification builds upon the company’s ongoing commitment to working with SAP.

“SAP remains the industry standard for Enterprise Resource Planning software used by mining companies,” he said. “This certification ensures our current and future customers can integrate operational technology with business processes to achieve a connected mining enterprise that provides a single source of truth across the organisation.”

RPMGlobal helps optimise bulk miners’ value chain with latest XECUTE update

Bulk handling, Coal technology, Communications in mining, IoT, Mining software, Steel and iron ore, , , , , ,

RPMGlobal has upgraded its advanced mine scheduling software, XECUTE, with a Demand Chain Optimiser (DCO) module that optimises the flow of material required to satisfy customer orders all the way back to the mine for those mining bulk commodities.

The company says it has been working with miners around the globe to bridge the gap between operational planning and customer demand, with this latest update taking the collaboration to a new level.

DCO, RPMGlobal says, removes many of the value chain challenges that can arise for miners with an integrated supply chain, such as coal operations or iron ore operations in the Pilbara.

The XECUTE short-term scheduling solution enables miners to maximise value through intelligent integration by connecting the mine plan to other departments systems, according to RPMGlobal.

RPMGlobal Chief Executive Officer, Richard Mathews, said the latest release of XECUTE was focused on bridging the gap between what the customer orders, and what the mine produces.

“Mining companies understand the risks of not having an optimised value chain in place, with bottlenecks and constraints that limit shipped throughput causing significant problems for both the miner and the customer,” he said.

RPMGlobal worked closely with a major Pilbara iron ore producer to develop the DCO module, with significant time spent refining the algorithms to ensure XECUTE fulfilled each customer’s order by blending product from many stockpiles.

The unique DCO functionality enables XECUTE users to define a list of specific product or cargo builds, the qualities and quantities required and the date by which the shipment must be completed. DCO’s optimisation algorithms then allow the quality of each build to converge to the target in time for completion, avoiding off-specification penalties and demurrage costs, it said.

The algorithms allow out-of-specification material to be blended to the required grade, increasing the quantity of saleable product available and maximising the net present value of the mining and supply chain operations, according to the company.

“By automating a process that was previously iterative and time consuming, mine planners see the downstream impact of changes to mining or processing and can react quickly to changing berthing schedules or unplanned events,” the company explained.

Mathews said: “In order to ensure continuity of operations in changing market conditions, operations need to invest in integrated systems and processes that maximise planning efficiency and satisfy customer orders which is exactly what XECUTE achieves.”

RPMGlobal has also made improvements to the grade control capabilities within XECUTE by integrating with an operation’s existing grade control process to allow rapid inclusion of grade control shapes and qualities. This ensures planners are using the most accurate information to plan, it said.

Planners have the option in XECUTE to use the grade control shapes directly as mining areas, but also have the flexibility to define mining areas independently to take multiple grade control shapes in the one task or include areas that do not yet include grade control information.

Mathews concluded: “Typical grade control processes force planners to use only the shapes that have already been defined, but don’t necessarily allow the flexibility to dig areas that don’t have those grade control shapes, and that’s what we’re doing in the latest release of XECUTE.

“Early feedback from clients has been positive as no other tool on the market provides the same level of flexibility and sophistication when it comes to optimising the customer demand chain.”

RPMGlobal helps Gübre Fabrikaları achieve gold reserve first at Gübretaş Söğüt in Turkey

Mine operation news, Mineral exploration, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , , , ,

RPMGlobal’s Consulting & Advisory division has expanded its local presence in Turkey in conjunction with the successful completion of a resource and reserve estimate for the local Gübretaş Söğüt gold project.

The company’s local Advisory division has grown its in-country capabilities, having welcomed Egemen Saygın to the role of Senior Mining Engineer and Tunahan Kılıç in the position of Consulting Geologist.

Collectively, the pair bring a high level of industry experience across exploration, operation and consulting to the Advisory team, further positioning RPMGlobal for success in the next phase of its market growth within Turkey, the company said.

RPMGlobal says it recently completed the first resource and reserve public disclosure for the high profile Gübretaş Söğüt gold project on the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST), in line with the recommendations of both the JORC Code and UMREK Code.

This marks the very first time a Turkish-listed company released a statement of mineral reserves on the BIST under UMREK, which was made compulsory in 2019, according to the company.

RPMGlobal was engaged as an independent estimator for Gübre Fabrikaları’s emerging gold project, considered one of the largest high-grade undeveloped gold projects in Turkey with significant upside potential.

Philippe Baudry, RPMGlobal’s Executive General Manager—Advisory Services, said: “The company is continuing to see opportunities supporting Turkish companies in a number of areas as the country’s mining industry undergoes a resurgence.

“Our team of experts on the ground are fielding queries from companies for our knowledge and support in the preparation of mining studies and compliance reports which is a reflection of our solid reputation and quality offerings in these important areas of project development.”

Baudry added: “The recent expansion of our Turkey team reflects a critical part of our strategy to grow our market share across the region through the provision of a strong local presence, and our Turkish office provides the perfect base to serve clients in the region around Turkey while giving them access to RPMGlobal’s global capability.”

RPMGlobal remains committed to providing expert advice and solutions to Turkey’s mining industry, recently becoming a corporate member of local industry organisation YERMAM (The Earth Sciences, Mining and Metallurgy Professionals Association of Turkey). It is also one of the few consulting firms with its own in-house UMREK Qualified Persons in Turkey, leading to increasing market demand for the company’s expertise in the preparation of JORC and UMREK compliance reports and NI-43-101 for equity market reporting, it said.

Baudry said Turkey’s growing pipeline of projects and strong levels of exploration would lead to continued acceleration of demand for the company’s expertise in independent assessment, governance and financier due diligence services.

Leading potash miner takes a liking to RPMGlobal’s UGPS software solution

Energy minerals, IoT, Mining software, , , , , ,

RPMGlobal says it has concluded the first sale of its latest integrated mine planning and scheduling product developed for the underground potash industry.

The first sale of Underground Potash Solution (UGPS) was concluded following completion of a successful trial program with a leading global potash miner who has purchased UGPS to extract greater value from their Canada operations. The sale follows the original release of UGPS to the market in October 2020.

UGPS was launched upon the completion of a development project that included input from global potash producers. The product uses the latest technologies, such as parametric design and scheduling, combined with several optimisation algorithms to create a unique offering specifically for potash operations, RPMGlobal says.

RPM Chief Executive Officer, Richard Mathews, said: “It has been really fascinating working with some of the leading producers in the industry to build a software planning and scheduling solution which addresses the unique challenges faced by the potash industry.

“At RPM, we continually strive to develop innovative solutions that provide a pivotal step change in the resource industry and we are very pleased that our latest integrated mine design and scheduling solution has been endorsed by a leading potash operator in North America.”

UGPS introduces to the market an enterprise application allowing users to rapidly evaluate different mine design scenarios, the company says.

“Instead of having to manually draw the mine layout in a CAD package, the parametric design techniques of UGPS enable a planner to rapidly generate and analyse multiple scenarios, thereby automating the repetitive and time-consuming tasks that can often take a mine planner weeks to perform,” RPMGlobal says.

The intuitive, process-driven interface makes the product easy to use, and, while most mine planning software is driven by customisable coding scripts, UGPS is very different given it is completely script free, according to the company. This feature becomes very important in terms of training and on-boarding new people, enabling each customer to derive immediate benefits following implementation of the product.

Using UGPS, users can complete detailed modelling of their potash deposit in 3D while also creating a complete mathematical model of the mine. Moreover, users are able to import existing designs, create new designs or use a combination of both.

“UGPS also introduces advanced scheduling methodology to the scheduling process to suit the practical needs of engineers operating in an underground potash environment,” the company says. “It also incorporates all aspects of the scheduling process in one, making it applicable for design, reserving and scheduling across all horizons.”

Mathews concluded: “As a fully integrated mine planning and design tool, UGPS is tailored to the needs of the underground potash industry and we are looking forward to rolling out UGPS to additional potash operations in 2021.”

RPMGlobal’s Strategic Design Optimiser gains traction in North America

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RPMGlobal says it has concluded the first sale of its new parametric design product, Strategic Design Optimiser (SDO), following successful beta testing.

RPM originally announced its intention to develop and release its new intelligent design solution to the market in March 2019 and, at the conclusion of a long partnership with a Canada-based mining customer, RPM’s beta testing program successfully showcased SDO’s ability to model strategic high-level stope and development design harnessing the application’s automated workflow, RPM said.

This successful program concluded with the customer purchasing a licence to use the RPM solution.

The main benefits of using SDO include its ease of use, ability to evaluate strategic scenarios quickly and the ability to analyse more scenarios with robust analysis in decision making, according to the company.

SDO includes the Mine Shape Optimiser (MSO), which generates the first pass development using RPM’s Development Optimiser, eliminating the requirement of the user to draw every part of the mine design, RPM says. This allows end users to perform their strategic design work in one package.

With SDO, users can make small tweaks to designs in one area and have those changes reflected through the rest of the design, a task that would otherwise take days in traditional CAD-based packages as each edit would need to be done manually, according to the company.

RPM Chief Executive Officer, Richard Mathews, said the sale was a reflection of the product team’s dedication to successfully bringing SDO to market through strong partnerships and industry collaboration.

“It’s very pleasing to see SDO gaining traction in the North American market, and we are confident this sale will spur further interest in our leading strategic design packages heading into 2021,” he said.

The company added: “SDO is unique in that it uses parametric design principles, combined with several leading optimisation algorithms, in a single user experience. SDO integrates both the stope and development optimisation into a single package, allowing customers to generate, change and update designs on the fly.”

The design tool emphasises the visualisation of results on plots, graphs and tables, allowing the user to interpret and select with confidence the best scenarios to bring forward for more detailed designs, RPM says.

Strategic options can then be filtered by the scenarios that maximise value and eliminate unviable scenarios early.

Mathews concluded: “RPM remains committed to providing its customers with the most advanced mining technology solutions and our continued investment in the design and scheduling suite will help ensure mine planners continue to unlock new levels of capability.”

Roy Hill backs interoperability developments with ERDi TestLab membership

Automation, Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining equipment, Mining safety, Mining services, , , , , , , , , ,

Iron ore miner Roy Hill has become the latest member of the University of Western Australia’s (UWA) Energy & Resources Digital Interoperability Industry 4.0 (ERDi i4.0) TestLab.

Roy Hill is committed to the development of interoperability within the resources industry and recently appointed Michael Waller to a new role – Interoperability Manager – to lead the company’s strategy and engagement, according to the TestLab.

In the few short weeks since Michael’s appointment, Roy Hill’s interoperability approach has progressed at a rapid rate, with Waller spearheading the establishment of a collaborative interoperability project within the TestLab, it added.

This new project will be sponsored by ERDi TestLab founding partner METS Ignited, and centres around interoperability in the mobile equipment execution management and control technology space across both manual and automated equipment, it said.

“We are thrilled to be working with Roy Hill and the other participants on this exciting project, more details of which will be announced soon,” it added.

Roy Hill’s interoperability streak was made clear earlier this year when it signed an agreement with Epiroc and ASI Mining to deliver a fully automated solution for the iron ore mining operation’s mixed fleet of 77 haul trucks.

Other companies to recently sign up to the TestLab include Trevali, RPMGlobal and ABB.

RPMGlobal futureproofs inventory management for miners

Equipment maintenance, IoT, Mining consumables, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining software, , , , , ,

RPMGlobal has completed the acquisition of IMAFS, adding a cloud delivered, inventory management and forecasting software solution to a suite of technology solutions that use proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms to greatly improve inventory management.

IMAFS analyses inventory data from corporate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to deduce the optimal timeframe for inventory orders, costs, and order frequency. It supports not only several forecasting methods, but also takes advantage of AI and machine-learning capabilities to optimise the calculation of the key variables in inventory management, RPMGlobal says.

The ‘forward looking’ predictive algorithms become particularly powerful when used in conjunction with RPMGlobal’s asset management system, AMT, the company added. AMT uses a Dynamic Life Cycle Costing engine that forecasts, in real time, every maintenance event for a piece of equipment, at a component level, until the end of its economic life.

The future demand of an organisation’s assets, combined with the optimisation algorithms within IMAFS, are the critical pieces of the puzzle to optimise procurement and management of critical parts and components, according to RPMGlobal.

“The delivery of an integrated AMT and IMAFS offering delivers an industry-first, predictive solution with more certainty of the future and less reliance on historical data,” it said.

ERP systems typically use historical consumption to predict future requirements, which, according to RPMGlobal, has its limitations in a volatile maintenance and repair focused industry such as mining.

“This future demand knowledge will further improve the accuracy of parts availability, reducing inventories, decreasing stockouts and reducing equipment downtimes,” it said.

IMAFS has been proven in industry, according to RPMGlobal, with one operation reducing 78% of stockouts for items with high usage, while concurrently reducing stock levels by 14% for the items controlled by IMAFS. Another operation was able to reduce global inventory by 15% within the first 10 months without any diminution of service levels.

RPMGlobal Chief Executive Officer, Richard Mathews, said: “The company is leading the way in the practical application of innovative technology that increased miners’ operational competitiveness. With our growing suite of optimisation products, RPMGlobal has built a capacity to help global operations extract more value where it counts. We are excited to be utilising AI technologies to improve the efficiency of mining operations across the asset management function.”

He added: “We intend to build on this AI capability by including additional variables in the models that may impact availability for our customers operating in remote locations. This experience will also assist us as we look to use these same advanced techniques to further optimise mine planning and scheduling.”

RPMGlobal moves Consulting & Advisory division HQ to Toronto

Environmental, Mining finance, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , ,

RPMGlobal’s Consulting & Advisory division has opened its new regional headquarters in Toronto, Canada, to, it says, cater for the increasing growth in the country’s mining investment activity.

As a reflection of the growing size and activity in the Canadian market in terms of global mining investment and mining company headquarters, RPMGlobal’s Consulting & Advisory head office has transferred from Denver to Toronto.

The new Toronto head office is a key component of the company’s refreshed Americas Business Strategy, which also sees the relocation of Avakash (Akoo) Patel, President of the Americas region for RPMGlobal’s Consulting & Advisory business, to Toronto.

Alongside the business re-focus into Canada, RPMGlobal is continuing to grow its team with the recent appointments of resource geologists Jeffrey Smith and Francine Long, based at the new Toronto office.

In line with further anticipated growth in the market, RPMGlobal says it will continue to seek out qualified talent in the engineering and infrastructure space to join the team in Toronto. RPMGlobal’s Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance team is also looking to add to its environmental and community social relations group.

Philippe Baudry, RPMGlobal’s Executive General Manager – Advisory Services, said the company was experiencing rapid growth across its Canada customer base in line with its strategy to grow market share across the Americas.

“Our intention is always to have a very strong support network for our customers and the increased investment in our Toronto footprint is a strong reflection of that commitment,” he said. “Over the years, Toronto’s mining sector has been on a strong growth trajectory, which is indicative of the confidence and stability in the Toronto market.

“With a substantial amount of mining investment and financial decisions around mining now being driven by companies that are mostly headquartered in Toronto or Vancouver, it was a natural decision to move the lion’s share of our focus to Toronto.”

As part of the overarching Americas strategy, RPMGlobal will continue supporting its client base in Denver, Reno and Vancouver, and will continue to grow its presence in South America following the recent establishment of RPMGlobal’s new office in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The company’s commitment to the region is supported by the appointment of Marcelo del Giudice as its new General Manager of South America and Principal Metallurgist. del Giudice is a metals and mining professional with proven experience in different base metals and precious metals across Latin America.

Patel said the repositioning of RPMGlobal’s Consulting & Advisory division in the Americas coincided with the growing significance of Canada as a global major mining hub.

“Canada, and Toronto in particular, is a major target for growth in coming years due to the size of the mining market with 47% of all publicly traded mining companies trading on the TSX and TSX-V, and 53% of all mining financing in the last five years being completed on Toronto exchanges,” he said.

“The strategic decision to open up a new office in Toronto positions us well to capitalise on the strong demand for RPMGlobal’s high quality mining advisory services in Canada.”