Minnovare’s CORE product has hit a milestone as the software component of the company’s Production Optimiser system continues to benefit from an increasing number of customers looking to improve their drill and blast operations.

CORE has now logged one million metres of drilling data since the platform’s launch just under a year ago, Minnovare said.

The Production Optimiser system, suitable for installation on all production rig makes and models, “substantially reduces blasthole drilling deviation – which in turn reduces average dilution and downtime (including reduced secondary drill and blasts), whilst improving overall fragmentation and ore recovery”, the company says.

The CORE drill data hub syncs seamlessly with mine planning and drill & blast software (including Deswik, Aegis and Vulcan/Maptek), according to the company, ensuring improvements are seen throughout the production cycle.

Ryan Stimpson, Minnovare Head of Engineering, said: “Every meter provides important insights for our client’s drill and blast operations – precise dates and times, precise drilling locations (compared to the design), and by which drill rig and which driller.

“Maybe best of all – the entire process is captured without the need to decipher questionable handwriting or water-smudged ink like under the old paper plan/plod system!”

With Minnovare CORE, engineers can import drilling assets (rigs), schedules and drill and blast designs from mine planning software – down to the individual hole – and then export them as a digital drill plan (Digi-Plan), accessible by drillers via a touchscreen-tablet mounted onboard the rig, according to Minnovare.

Drillers log actual drill data (including meters drilled) into the tablet and, at the end of each shift, a digital plod (Digi-Plod) is then synced back to CORE, ready to be analysed by engineers and charge-up crews.

“With Minnovare CORE, Digi-Plan and Digi-Plod, engineers and drill teams benefit from a more streamlined, more accountable, data-driven system that improves performance visibility and ultimately productivity across site,” the company said.

Stimpson added: “This level of uptake confirms that CORE is already a critical part of the production cycle for our clients. We’ll continue to listen carefully to feedback from Minnovare CORE users on how to improve the software in a way that positively impacts their role and the productivity of the mine.”