MINING SOFTWARE
Deswik most recently announced the launch of Deswik. OPS, its new operational shift planning and tracking tool
which is a technique where you can run a series of tests against your dataset to determine the optimal parameters for use in estimation, such as the size of the search ellipse, numbers of samples to use as well as optimising for the most appropriate block size. n Estimation – Multivariate Estimation: The new estimation engine caters for the use of cokriging. This technique is extremely useful for estimating variables which are poorly sampled by using their co-relation with another well sampled variable.“ This allows you to produce meaningful estimates of your full range of variables despite inconsistencies in sample data.” n Estimation – Light-speed mode: The new estimation engine is multi-threaded, meaning that estimates are produced far more rapidly than before. In tests that Datamine have run on a 1GB model, the speed increases in the new engine were clocked at over 100 times faster. Separately to the Advanced Estimation workflow, the Advanced Geostatistics module now also incorporates the Uniform Conditioning functionality. This was previously available as a separate module but now comes as standard in the new unified module.
From discussions with customers about emerging requirements, Datamine says it also recognises a need for a seamless transition between long term planning and short term operational requirements such as grade control, drill and blast and ultra-short term scheduling.“ Traditionally these requirements have been met with manual systems or spreadsheets, but the complexity of modern mines and recent pressures on margins mean that more sophisticated solutions must be implemented to ensure long term value is not destroyed by short term decision-making. As a result, Datamine has made several investments in both acquisitions and internal research and development in this area in the past two years, with new products for ore control, drill and blast and schedule optimisation seeing strong uptake in the market. Datablast was acquired in November 2016 and provides a robust and comprehensive system to consistently deliver quality blasting outcomes in open pit mines, perfectly complementing the highly successful Aegis drill and blast system for underground operations.”
Studio OP now works seamlessly with a CPLEX-based solution for multiple-objective short term scheduling problems, and a new automated pit design solution will be released in early 2017. Ore Controller is now installed at over 25 mine sites and can deliver upwards of $ 20 million per annum to the bottom line through reduced ore loss and dilution. Datamine says it also continues its focus on transparency, data sharing and high performance computing via its Summit cloud platform.“ This solution now delivers data storage, processing, analysis and reporting on all browsers and device types as a result of an update to HTML5. Processing-intensive tasks can be hosted and performed on the cloud, with increasing connectivity to the Datamine desktop products, allowing users to work seamlessly across platforms and utilise the most appropriate computing power for the task at hand.”
For underground planners, MSO v3 for automated stope design was released in late 2016, the first commercial delivery of the most recent AMIRA collaborative research outcomes. Throughout 2017 various releases of updated underground design and scheduling products are planned, starting with a major upgrade to EPS due for release in February.
The company says a number of customers around the world have made substantial roll-outs of Datamine products in recent months including a mid-tier gold and silver producer in the S & P500 that has standardised on the Fusion exploration database technology, delivering field data from across the Americas to a central corporate database instantly with in-built governance, quality assurance and reporting. A top-tier diversified global mining company purchased the Aegis drill and blast system for underground mines in Africa, Central Asia and Australia. The automation features in Aegis allow engineers to design underground blast layouts, charging and initiation timing in under half the time taken with other packages. A leading Russian gold producer and a large Latin American silver producer implemented Datamine’ s geology and mine planning solutions at new mines entering production.“ In both cases the adoption of the existing standard within the group made the training and implementation phase rapid and cost-effective, with all data outputs easily compared across operations.” Finally, an emerging metals producer establishing a new mine has implemented the full suite of Datamine’ s geology and mine planning products, enabling a seamless flow of information across departments and from strategic through to short term operational planning horizons.
Deswik addresses planning and tracking
Deswik most recently announced the launch of Deswik. OPS, its new operational shift planning and tracking tool. Directly integrating with a variety of systems that maintain longer term schedules, planned KPIs and production data,“ this new tool is set to revolutionise the way mines manage their daily operations.”
Deswik. OPS enables production planners to rapidly create detailed, activity-based shift plans directly from the less detailed shorter-term schedules. Longer term schedules can also be imported to ensure the shift schedule remains on track with the organisation’ s longer term goals.“ Throughout a shift, users can import from third-party systems or manually capture real-time production data and events, mapping them to the activities and resources. By providing a live view of how the shift plan is progressing, the work can be better managed, resulting in higher productivity. In order to deal with the continual change in an operational environment, dynamic updates to the shift schedule are also possible.” Designed to meet the daily requirements of short-term engineers, production engineers, shift bosses, control room personnel and site superintendents, this new web-based tool“ will provide a centralised, collaborative interface and have everyone working towards common goals.” Deswik. OPS has been implemented at two beta sites, one in Northern Europe and another in Western Australia. Deswik engineers have been working closely with the clients to ensure that the system was not only set up to meet their specific requirements, but also tested extensively in an operational environment.
“ With the increased focus on productivity and efficiency improvements in mining operations, Deswik. OPS offers a solution that enable mines to move away from spreadsheet-based shift planning and take advantage of integrating the various systems that capture data on a mine. Deswik. OPS can turn that data into information that can be used to effectively manage the complex activities and interactions occurring in a shift.” explained Adam White, Deswik Technical Director.
38 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2017