Abstract:

Data reliability and process acceleration are common challenges faced by the mining industry. Data processing automation and replaying calculations are daily tasks of mining professionals working from data acquisition to the short-term mining plan. Using a shared platform for estimating ore resources and reserves fosters and streamlines cooperation on data analysis routines, developed and maintained by geologists or mining specialists.

This paper presents key elements of such a cloud-based platform. Teamwork, process reporting, and auditing are simplified both through collaboration features and centralized versioning. Often, many geological models can be updated within a few hours, thanks to introduced scalability and parallelism mechanisms. A computing cloud is an excellent place to host such a platform and to scale the services on demand. Already existing geological and off-the-shelf mining tools are not replaced: they can be embedded in a technology-agnostic way. Previously used parameters, data, and programs are archived, guaranteeing traceability and auditability of all processes executed in the platform. API integrations enable tomorrow’s mining industry, allowing back-and-forth communication with on-premises tools.

A strong collaboration between the IT department and the geological-mining teams has allowed building this platform for a worldwide producer, leader in high-grade manganese ore, and fourth in high-grade ferronickel and mineral sands. Many more ideas and opportunities are in the backlog to ensure a continuous improvement of this tool, and to facilitate consistency and fast execution of daily tasks. This paper illustrates the advantages of a cloud-computing-based approach to data processing with an application on 300 different nickel deposits in New Caledonia.

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Vincent Gallaire