MINING SOFTWARE
teleoperations ,” he said . “ We will continue developing advanced technologies that reduce energy use , to help lower the costs of operations and help our customers reach their sustainability targets .”
Leaving no value behind
Providing interoperable and transparent solutions has allowed Maptek to provide customers with solutions that span the mining value chain , and it is this same customised offering that could end up providing the mining community with the tools needed to tackle its ESG challenges – but not at the expense of margins .
Eduardo Coloma , CEO , Maptek , said : “ Optimisation is a big part of Maptek ’ s mine planning and mine operation applications . Optimising processes such as stripping , sequencing and haulage allows operations to minimise rehandling of material , which , in turn , reduces haulage costs and emissions .”
Some of the company ’ s long-term strategic initiatives include efficient mine production , matching grades and blends to customer specifications to avoid waste and energy , and provide “ climate-efficient processes ”.
Optimisation in the blasting space with its BlastLogic solution – which automates the design process and helps drill & blast engineers make intelligent choices for their plans – could lessen energy consumption at the crusher , for example .
On the haulage side – which can account for roughly 45 % of operating costs – solutions such as Maptek Evolution can cut costs at the same time as reducing fuel burn .
Capable of producing short , medium , long term and strategic life of mine schedules alongside practical production plans , Evolution ’ s capabilities go beyond haulage , with companies able to leverage it to achieve multiple objectives across the mining value chain using various tools , including in the environmental and governance side of the business .
It was recently , for example , adapted by Coeur Mining at the Wharf open-pit gold mine in South Dakota , USA , to schedule a heap leach operation where the pad footprints were re-used to minimise environmental impact and comply with the company ’ s licence to operate .
The proposed solution uses existing tailings tracking to model the pad stacking portion of the process and models pad offload as a separate ‘ pit ’ model . The overlapping entities ( pad stack and pad offload ) are then sequenced via constraints and dependencies .
Prior to this solution , the client had to use separate planning tools to document all material movement , with most of the scheduling carried out in Excel spreadsheets that required many iterations .
“ The single-setup solution streamlines the mine planning-scheduling interface with live links between Maptek Vulcan and Evolution ,” Coloma
explained .
At the same time , Maptek ’ s short-term planning solutions are providing the long-term visibility that mine sites need to keep 2030 , 2040 or 2050 ‘ net zero ’ goals on track .
“ While it may seem unlikely at the time that short-term schedule decisions can impact longerterm performance , real-world scenarios involving resource sterilisation , geotechnical risk , energy use and processing plant performance have seen value left in the ground ,” Coloma said .
To ensure such value doesn ’ t get ‘ left in the ground ’, Maptek has looked to collaborate with industry through sponsorship of not-for-profit bodies such as the Coalition for Eco Efficient Comminution ( CEEC ).
Sponsorship of CEEC is , Coloma said , aligned with the company ’ s mission to provide integrated decision-support tools that enable operations to make better decisions for safer , more efficient mining .
“ CEEC aims to drive efficiency , productivity and sustainability throughout the whole mining lifecycle and Maptek believes this is best achieved by considering these outcomes from the earliest stages of an operation ,” he said .
This is where a renewed focus on integrating advanced data reporting and analysis of many tools – including those from third-party providers – can ensure practical , real-world mining schedules are optimised against multiple objectives , either independently or
Improved transparency , control
Carlson Software ’ s ability to carry out mine modelling , analysis and planning was recently given a boost with the launch of Carlson Mining 2022 .
Focused on transparency and control for mine design and planning , its official release includes CAD-based mining software modules Carlson Geology , Carlson Surface Mining and Carlson Underground Mining .
The release includes new additions for drill hole labelling with complete control on formatting as well as improved Google Earth exporting , allowing engineers to easily share technical drill hole information across a universal interface . Carlson Mining 2022 also contains new routines for underground mine solid creation , viewing and editing ; all of which integrate well with Carlson Laser Measurement Devices systems for precision mapping and measurement , the company said .
The Carlson Geology block model viewer now has improved loading speed , and the added inspector option allows users to reveal individual block attributes , according to the company . Another improvement is the ability to increase or decrease specific grade opacity for adjustable viewing , with the command Block Model Statistics able to report by grade parameter for more descriptive reports .
A new feature within Carlson Surface Mining is the ability to evaluate mine timing without the inclusion of non-key / waste material . This userrequested feature allows for accurate mine scheduling at operations when “ spoil removal ” is subcontracted , Carlson said . Non-key tonnage is now trackable through the entire scheduling workflow .
Carlson Underground Mining introduces updates to working with underground solids – the “ Make Solid From Design ” command now
Carlson Mining 2022 includes new additions for drill hole labelling with complete control on formatting as well as improved Google Earth exporting
supports vertical alignments and outputs cross sections and template 3D polylines . When viewing solids , separate colours can be used to distinguish internal and external faces , Carlson added .
Tyler Faulkner , Carlson Sales and Support , said the development focus of the latest release was firmly on the end user .
“ Carlson ’ s relationship with our customers is the cornerstone of our culture and it always will be ,” he said .
The new release , which runs on both AutoCAD 2022 and IntelliCAD 10.1 , is part of the overall Carlson 2022 Office Software release with additional modules like Survey , Civil , Hydrology , GIS , CADnet , Construction and Point Cloud .
International Mining | FEBRUARY 2022