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February 2017
MODERN MINING
37
MINING SOFTWARE
such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, the DRC and
Tanzania,” he says. “In recent years, however,
we have devoted considerable attention to
South Africa and we now have a better balance,
with the South African mining sector account-
ing for almost a third of our African business.”
According to Venter, Maptek’s scanning
solutions are proving particularly popular
in Africa with some notable successes being
notched up. One case study he points to is
the use by De Beers of the I-Site Studio soft-
ware in combination with the I-Site 8800 laser
scanning system at its Venetia diamond mine
in Limpopo Province. In 2006 the mine began
using I-Site laser scanning to survey the pit and
stockpiles, upgrading to the I-Site 8800 laser
scanner in 2012.
The I-Site Studio software is used to create a
pit surface for month end production calcula-
tions. Toes and crests, and contours from this
surface are applied to generate various plans for
different departments. The pit surface is impor-
tant for identifying the amount of waste and ore
mined. This is measured by making the waste
and ore block models part of the overall volume
calculations.
Previously, surveyors had to enter every
loading area to record material being loaded.
The long range scanner requires far fewer set-
ups, which saves time and minimises safety
issues. Measuring the rehabilitated waste
dumps with a GPS or Total Station typically
took one day. This was cut to three hours with
the I-Site 8800 long range scanner, with fewer
setups reducing the physical effort as well.
Venter notes that among Maptek’s clients
across the continent are some of the biggest
names in mining, including not only De Beers
but many other ‘blue chip’ mining groups such
as Randgold Resources, First Quantum, various
Anglo group companies, Vedanta and Barrick.
“Our employees travel widely in Africa in sup-
port of our customers and we are known for the
quality of our technical support and our con-
sulting services,” he says.
An interesting development in the mine
ventilation field is Maptek’s collaboration with
VUMA, a subsidiary of leading South Africa-
based mine ventilation solution provider
Bluhm Burton Engineering (BBE). The two
companies executed a memorandum of under-
standing last year to facilitate the integration of
Vulcan with VUMA’s software, developed for
the analysis and design of underground mine
ventilation and refrigeration systems.
“This integration will allow mine survey
and design data to be used in ventilation and
cooling analysis, without replication of data,
and will ensure
that accurate and up-to-
date representations of the mine
surface can be applied to the planning of mine
ventilation systems,” says Venter.
Venter also mentions that the MineSuite
software is now being marketed globally by
MinLog. “We have a stake in MinLog’s South
African operation and work very closely with
them,” he notes. He adds that the partner-
ship between Maptek and MinLog has seen
MineSuite becoming ever more capable. “It is
now one of the few products on the market able
to integrate various business processes across
a variety of disciplines into a single source of
operational information spanning the entire
mining value chain.”
Venter sees further growth for Maptek’s
products in Africa. “Mines around the con-
tinent are looking to technology to enable
them to work efficiently and contain costs,”
he explains. “This provides huge opportuni-
ties for us as we have what is arguably one of
the most complete suites of mining software
available in the market and are well placed to
be a mine solutions technology partner to the
African mining industry. Our sales have seen
good growth through the downturn in mining
that has been experienced over the past two or
three years. Now with a recovery underway,
this trend can only strengthen and we are very
positive about prospects.”
A pit design generated with
the Automated Pit Designer
in Vulcan 10.
Implicit Modelling provides resource geologists with a newmethod for interpreting a deposit
by generating automatic models of complex geological domains from drillhole information.