MINING SOFTWARE
apply these practices to manage their ecological footprint while maintaining productivity ,” Barlow said .
There is also potential to incorporate advances from outside of the Dassault Systèmes ’ sphere , with the 3DEXPERIENCE platform available to be customised and to integrate solutions from other technology providers .
“ I think we will see over the coming years a number of new entrants into the mining software segment ; these new providers will focus on niche technology looking to provide solutions to single areas of the mining value chain ,” he said . “ We welcome these new entrants as they will push forward innovation in their areas of expertise , but we feel that you can only truly transform the mining industry by focusing not only on the single workflow or silo but instead on the total business process .
“ The value of software platforms and virtual twins is not just in making the work of a single user more efficient or productive but instead in being able to re-engineer the whole process , making improvements in each step .”
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Maptek says its most recent launch for the blasting design space was a targeted response to industry observations that the engineeringintensive load in this segment of the market was being magnified by a shrinking engineering workforce .
Eduardo Coloma , Maptek CEO , explained : “ Blast engineers reported they had little or no time to evaluate how different blast design parameters would impact the outcome of their next blast . It also took too long to create a single design using standard parameters , with traditional CAD tools perceived as too fiddly and slow .”
BlastMCF , being launched this quarter , confronts this by offering an automated blast design solution for surface operations , generating scenarios that consider competing objectives while engineers retain fine control , according to the company .
BlastMCF uses the Maptek Compute Framework ( MCF ), which is built on the premise that any complex process can be solved in a way that minimises intensive human interaction . Being able to leverage MCF ’ s cloud computational power for rapid , on-demand results within BlastMCF is a game changer for drill and blast engineers , allowing them to efficiently generate optimal designs , Maptek says . The same framework is already deployed for geological modelling in Maptek DomainMCF .
“ BlastMCF simplifies design through a repeatable workflow , with common parameters built-in for generating practical outcomes in minutes ,” Coloma says . “ Confidence in the process is fostered through the ability to consider competing blast objectives , readily trade-off and choose the best design parameters while retaining fine control over editing . Setups are saved centrally to be used again or adapted and referenced alongside the resulting designs .”
Another recent addition to the Maptek portfolio is the Maptek Vestrex ecosystem for automation and orchestration .
On the back of successful demonstrations at MINExpo in September , Maptek announced last year that Vestrex would be open for early access to customers .
Vestrex creates value by making connections between diverse data sources without constraints of product , application , process or format , Maptek says . Data in the cloud encourages stakeholders across mining roles , teams and organisations to collaborate and explore new use cases for their technical data beyond traditional applications .
In the Vestrex ecosystem , automation streamlines operations through real-time data and process integration and accelerates decision making processes , while orchestration builds on computational power and automated workflows to unlock value from technical data and mining systems .
Coloma told IM that Vestrex was anchored by three pillars – Data Systems , Computing Framework and Process Orchestration – with customers able to combine any or all of the services alongside Maptek software or thirdparty tools .
One of the scenarios Maptek Vestrex is helping with involves incorporating measurement while drilling ( MWD ) data into the customer void modelling process .
In this process , data from various sources , including MWD , is imported into the Maptek Data System and invokes transformation into a format that can be ingested by Maptek DomainMCF for modelling . The DomainMCF model is then converted into a customer-defined format , such as GeoTiFF , with the subsequent files sent to the “ customer data lake ”. The GeoTiFF files are automatically converted into polygons and
Maptek Epoch Dynamic Solids will bring users closer to their model data and reduce data movement between applications , Eduardo Coloma says
pushed into Maptek Vulcan as design file layers or into Maptek GeologyCore for incorporation in the void modelling process . “ All of the steps are automated , with no manual intervention required once the specifications are set up ,” Coloma says .
This process incorporates data from desktop applications , drill hole data in a third-party application and existing models .
“ Simulations can be run in the MCF , with multiple block models feeding into the data system ,” Coloma said . “ Geologists can be alerted by the Maptek Orchestration Environment to review models and publish to downstream processes for additional automations such as reserving or grade control .”
The ability to automatically run processes in response to new data and events , and invoke multiple business processes simultaneously on shared input data , will revolutionise mining operations , according to Coloma .
These are not the only planned enhancements to the Maptek ecosystem , with two significant mine planning updates involving Vulcan – its 3D geological modelling and mine design software – and Evolution Epoch , a dedicated short-term planning tool for managing multiple mining activities , tasks and equipment , and applying dependencies , in the works .
“ In response to customer feedback , we have reimagined the Vulcan process of creating scheduling solids to make the tool easier to use and the process more consistent ,” Coloma said of the former .
The introduction of Mining Solids will require far fewer inputs while delivering improved results , and performance and quality of output , he claims , greatly reducing the overhead to initialise mine schedules for planners .
The major enhancements to Evolution Epoch aim to improve schedule preparation workflow .
“ Epoch Dynamic Solids will bring users closer to their model data and reduce data movement between applications ,” Coloma says . “ The
16 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2025