May/June 2013 - The ASIA Miner

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Mine Design CAE Moves Deeper into Mining A relatively recent entrant into the mine-design software market, in the past CAE has perhaps been better known world-wide for its simulator and training technology. However, the company’s purchases of Datamine and Century Systems Technologies has increased its interest in the mining sector, such that it now has a dedicated business area, CAE Mining. CAE Mining supplies software tools for underground mine planning, including Mine2-4- D and its successor, CAE Studio 5-D Planner. The company’s Mineable Reserves Optimizer (MRO) package determines the optimal mining envelopes within which stopes should be designed, and can be used for preliminary underground reserve estimation. The Mineable Shape Optimizer (MSO) automatically produces optimized stope designs that maximize the value of recovered ore within the given geometry and design constraints. It supports massive, sub-vertical and flat horizontal deposits and can quickly generate individual stope designs within a resource model, CAE Mining says. In terms of access design, Mine Layout Optimizer (MLO) produces optimal decline designs to satisfy access requirements and design criteria. The company suggests that this can be valuable with rapid engineering during the analysis stages of a project, as well later once designs become more detailed. Hard Dollar says its Project Cost Management (PCM) package enables mining companies to make project decisions that avoid cost overruns. evaluate off-shore mineral resources, has adapted Vulcan 3-D modelling software for its exploration on 26 mining leases off-shore Nome, Alaska. Vulcan GeoModeller provides a complete set of tools for exploration and mining geologists, and can be used on both stratigraphic and non-stratigraphic deposits. The Vulcan platform allows users to do resource modelling, mine planning and reconciliation in the same environment. Hard Dollar: Counting Cash Where it Counts As noted earlier, plenty of mining companies are feeling the combined effects of soaring capex costs, upward pressures on operating costs and uncertainties over commodity markets. In a presentation given in April last year, Scottsdale, Arizona-based Hard Dollar commented that “mining companies must take measures to manage cash flow and conserve spending, while ensuring that projects stay on schedule.” The company went on to point out that controlling costs and managing mining resources requires a robust tool, suggesting that its Project Cost Management (PCM) package removes common hurdles from cost controls, allowing mining companies to make project decisions that easily avoid cost overruns. While not specifically a mine design package, PCM provides a way of producing detailed, timely project status data, the company states. These data immediately show what was estimated and budgeted, versus actual project performance. Through customizable daily reports, an entire project overview is displayed, clearly showing variances and forecasts at completion. In July 2012, Hard Dollar teamed up with Canadian company CAE to include its PCM in CAE Mining’s mine design, planning and scheduling software suite. “Hard Dollar’s integration with the new CAE Studio 5-D Planner provides customers transparent delivery of cost and productivity throughout the entire project lifecycle,” the companies said at the time, while pointing out that by integrating the two products in an industry first, they had provided users with the opportunity to merge mine design, scheduling, financial and productivity modelling for both study and operational environments. According to Hard Dollar, PCM can reduce the time it takes to build, plan, deliver and forecast cost and productivity by more than 300%, while increasing profits by 15% or more Good Designs Save Time and Money With so much pressure on exploration and mining companies to bring projects on stream in a cost-effective, timely manner, while working in increasingly remote and often logistically challenging environments, it is hardly surprising that there is a strong market for comprehensive software tools that can take some of the risk out of the design process. Each of the major suppliers has its own list of ‘satisfied customers’, working in locations from Nevada to Papua New Guinea, and from Australia to Appalachia. It is, of course, sensible to remember that all of these software packages rely on having accurate data to work with, so it is essential that users ensure that their input information is not only clean, but is as accurate as can be achieved. After all, the old maxim ‘garbage-in, garbage-out’ applies to design software as much as it does to any other data-reliant process. In common with other sectors of mining and exploration technology, there appears to have been a steady trend toward consolidation within software suppliers, usually with the aim of amalgamating complementary products. Most suppliers claim dominance in one particular aspect or another, although it is clear that no one company has an over-riding position in the wider world market. Software development and computing power have gone hand-in-hand here as elsewhere in the industry, with 64-bit technology becoming mainstream where large amounts of data have to be handled. Shareholders should always be able to see where a project’s design has not met the mark. Whether they can do anything about it is, of course, another matter. Perhaps the best thing about good design is that it just keeps paying dividends. 64 | ASIA Miner | May/June 2013
Events CIM 2013 CONVENTION May 5-8, Toronto, Canada www.web.cim.org/toronto2013/ OZWATER’13, AUSTRALIA’S INTERNATIONAL WATER CONFERENCE May 7-9, Perth, Western Australia www.ozwater.org CHINA NICKEL CONFERENCE May 15-16, Shanghai, China www.immevents.com/mining-conference/china-nickel-conference INTELLIGENT MINING WORKSHOP SERIES 2013 May 15-17, Bandung, Indonesia www.id.micromine.com/news-events/events AUSTMINE AUSTRALIAN TECHNOLOGY May 20-23, Perth, Western Australia www.austmine2013.com/Event.aspxid=783378 INTELLIGENT MINING WORKSHOP, COAL FOCUS May 21-23, Jakarta, Indonesia http://id.micromine.com/news-events/events MINING SKILLS SUMMIT 2013 May 30-31, Sydney, New South Wales www.miningskillsaustralia.com.au/events.html COALTRANS ASIA June 2-5, Bali Indonesia www.coaltrans.com COAL PROCESSING & MINING TECHNOLOGY June 4-5, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia www.uexpos.com/coalProcessingMiningTech_Mongolia.html MINING PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY APAC 2013 June 5-7, Perth, Western Australia www.miningprocurement.com.au AUSIMM INTERNATIONAL URANIUM CONFERENCE June 11-12, Darwin, Northern Territory www.conferencealerts.com/show-eventid=110303 CLEAN COAL FORUM June 13-14, Beijing, China www.cdmc.org.cn/2013/ccf/ MINES & MONEY BEIJING June 17-19, Beijing, China www.minesandmoney.com/beijing COALTRANS MONGOLIA June 25-26, Ulaanbaatar. www.coaltrans.com May/June 2013 | ASIA Miner | 65
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May/June 2013 | Volume 10 | Issue 3
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From The Editor Networking vital in
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Mining Success Stories Matthew Gill
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Mining Success Stories have collect
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Asian Intelligence Evolution opens
Page 16: Central Asia Kazax closes Lomo iron
Page 20: Central Asia Exploration agreement
Page 24: Central Asia Chaarat to begin with
Page 28: Central Asia Delays in Pakrut const
Page 32: China Solid production at Jiangsu p
Page 36 and 37: Malaysia J Resources to increase Pe
Page 38 and 39: Thailand Positive PEA for Southeast
Page 40 and 41: Central Asia 1.2 million ounce gold
Page 42 and 43: Myanmar Centurion secures Ba Mauk c
Page 44 and 45: Philippines Co-O expansion nears co
Page 46 and 47: Indonesia Jatenergy to invest in ne
Page 48 and 49: Mongolia Erdene and Teck align for
Page 50 and 51: Australia Federal approval for Toro
Page 52 and 53: Papua New Guinea Mincor begins fiel
Page 54 and 55: South Pacific Vatukoula begins mini
Page 56 and 57: International Project Survey ANNUAL
Page 58 and 59: International Project Survey lion i
Page 60 and 61: International Project Survey Projec
Page 62 and 63: Mine Design TOOLS TO ASSIST IN plan
Page 64 and 65: Mine Design Multiple grade value sh
Page 68 and 69: Product News Tenova Bateman Technol
Page 70 and 71: Supplier News Keep manuals up to da
Page 72 and 73: Supplier News TPC inventor Erlau ma
Page 74: Exploration Spotlight Tuvatu minera
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May/June 2013 - The ASIA Miner

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