MineQuest Perth 2014

The MineQuest Perth 2014 at the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle was quite a successful one, with nearly 40 clients coming down to see the new improvements to the software, and hear a bit about some of our new family companies in the Hexagon group. The news of sale of Mintec to Hexagon some months ago now has been positively received by clients, especially as they know that the MineSight product and service will not be diminished by the move. MineQuest provided an opportunity for SafeMine and Jigsaw to show their product as well, both of which were very interesting to those in attendance. MineQuest is always a great time to catch up with clients, both new and existing. It is particularly good for allowing both clients and MineSight staff to put faces to names, as well as discuss ways to improve the process for both sides.

Thursday started with registration before Glenn Wylde gave an overview of how MineSight fits in with the Hexagon group, the newly developed Hexagon Mining and the companies and services making that up, and a quick overview of the new functionality coming in MineSight. The more detailed product development would come through the presentations relevant to that particular program. Mark Gabbitus then presented the Implicit Modeler tool and the improvements and functionality that have been added to the tool over the last year since its release. This is a very useful tool and one I made good use of a week ago while running training with Phonesack at their Kaleum coal project.

MineSight Atlas, Planner and the unfolding utilities made up the next three presentations. This was good as Atlas continues to be a flagship product, MSPlanner is a new tool for us and replaces the outgoing MSIP toolset. And Grant McEwen presented the unfolding utilities, comprising Relative Surface Interpolator and the Dynamic Unfolding tools. This was important for a few of our clients and allows MineSight to accurately calculate the true distances along a fold instead of just the vector distance. This brought us to lunch and another chance to catch up with the clients and discuss more than just work.

Verne Vice led the after lunch presentations by bringing out some tips and tricks to working with MineSight 3D. This is always helpful and people tend to learn something new, regardless of how small it is. Rohan Anchan then presented the new and improved Reserve utility. This works in that is combines the 4 different ways of reporting reserves in the past and brings it all together in a new and modern way. The ease of which this tool is set up and used was a surprise to one of the Boddington representatives who is looking forward to implementing its use on site.

After an afternoon break the final presentations for the first day were under way. Mark was back to talk about the Performance Manager. This tool allows users to track key metrics regarding the drill and blast process, dig rates and truck locations which allows the user to reconcile and hopefully improve the blasting and mining process to better improve productivity and profit. The last presentation of the day was Andrew Baxter showing the new Stope and underground design tools. When combined with MSAtlas this allows for MineSight to be a complete underground solution for the engineering department. A quick discussion with the attendees then commenced regarding future development. This included both where MineSight is heading as well as what the clients would like to see added and improved in the software. The good news arising here is the potential for the MineSight software to leverage some of the tools and abilities from the other softwares within the Hexagon group. Whether this be to give more functionality to our plotting tools, add in some GIS abilities or just better interact with the likes of Jigsaw and SafeMine, the potential for the software group and Hexagon Mining is huge.

Then it was time for some drinks and canapés for those attending MineQuest. Again, this allowed for clients and MineSight staff to have a chat, whether it be the mining industry, software usage, needs and wants, or the world cup. The only solace to Australia being knocked out already is that so too are England. And the odd quality team like Spain, who really aren't that quality so far.

Day two brought out most of the same people, with a few clients not making it and a few others showing up who couldn't attend Thursdays sessions. While Thursday had been a single room for the feature presentations, Friday would have MineQuest split into two rooms, one predominantly for the engineers and the other more geologically related. I was lucky enough to spend my day in the geology room so I didn't have to interact with the engineers (ewww, icky people :p ).

The geology day started with Anurag Sharma running a workshop about the workflow of sub-blocking in MineSight. The only real query about sub-blocking was about how we treat the child blocks compared to other software providers. In this way we are unique in that we store our sub-block information to an SQL-light file which allows for greater flexibility and quicker response times within MS3D. After a break Andrew was back up and talking about using Implicit Modeler and Unfolding to create better grade models. This led to a lot of healthy discussion regarding our implicit modelling tool, surface generation and manipulation, and work flows. The conversation also somehow moved into a little bit of MSAxis and validating and archiving data for later auditing and recreation if required.

Then it was time for lunch again. Though on the way to lunch I stopped and helped Dallas from Crystal Sun Consulting and we had a bit of a chat through the ease of use with MSTorque and its ability to reproduce and exceed the abilities of the files 11 and 12. This would allow for better abilities when it came to compositing, but also for him to access the abilities of the unfolding tools and Implicit Modeler.

The first discussion after lunch was given by myself regarding using Value of Information to better define drill programs to use to improve the mine revenue. This would incorporate using conditional simulation and MSEP to create the values for the blocks and then produce an optimised pit around it. Due to available time, we then talked about MSAxis and using the Process Manager for not just grade control, but also resource work as well as an engineering case. Basically using the utility to create a process work flow that must be followed and validated in order for it to work. The primary reason for finding time to do this was in response to queries earlier in the day about the archiving of the process at different stages to make the data auditable and recoverable in the future. This was seen to be of great benefit to the clients in the room when we were discussing this. The last geology room workshop was by Grant who went through the MSTorque improvements over the past year. MSTorque is Grants baby in that he has presented something MSTorque related every year we’ve had the tool. This year the onus was on the compositing functionality that had been brought into and improved within the tool.

The last session of the day had everyone brought back together for the all-important prize giving and then Plotting for Productivity by Rohan. This went through the changes that have been made to plotting within MS3D that have made the process a lot easier for users to work with. The prizes were given for best idea to improve the software (the winning idea was done asked for by 4 different people, so the runner up idea got the prize, Matthew Cotterell from Snowden for a dump design tool where the dump design angle only went to one direction instead of all directions) and best question (Alex Hatch from Alcoa was the first to ask for the best idea, can we get an importer to import GIS software poly information easy). There were many other questions, requests and thoughts to come from MineQuest Perth 2014 and it was positive to see so many clients there and good to catch up with those who haven’t needed technical support for a while. Thanks to all the clients for attending, to our new partners in the Hexagon family for attending and sharing, and to the MineSight staff for presenting quality product and putting together a well detailed MineQuest.

Coal in Laos

June had me off to Laos (incidentally, it is supposed to be spelt Lao, but a French grammatical error now has the western world adding the silent "s" at the end) to meet up with some MineSight users working for Phonesack Group at their Kaleum Coal Project. This was going to mean I was a week on site going through some geology modelling and seeing a new part of southern Laos. This should be a nice return to geology again.

A routine flight to Bangkok, overnight and then an early afternoon flight to Pakse and then a couple of hours in the car to site. Nope. Unfortunately Laos airlines wont fly when only two people are booked, so the Bangkok to Pakse leg was cancelled. This meant day one ended with a late flight to Vientiane instead. Now normally I wouldn't mind this, but the 10pm arrival at the hotel and 5am departure was not conducive to experiencing the food and sights of Vientiane which I do enjoy. The karaoke club next door wasn't particularly helpful either, so I wouldn't recommend the Vientiane Mercure Hotel if you don't sing. So the six thirty flight to Pakse means that we would be on the road by nine, this actually would be a good thing. The roads and drivers in Laos are similar to a lot of Asia in that the driving rules aren't really rules. So red lights and green lights all mean caution, 50 means go flat out and well, just don't crash if you can avoid it. You certainly have a vast mix of vehicles, speeds and abilities on the roads. So in this regard, having a morning drive to site certainly beat having a late afternoon journey as was the original plan.

A quick stop was made at the Phonesack Padou camp in order to refuel the car and change driver, and then it was back on the road. But while most of the first segment was flat land driving on reasonable roads, this second segment was mostly driven through range country and most of that was gravel roads. The roads had been worked on in the not too distant past, a lot of new concrete bridges had been put in and the gravel was reasonably smooth. Then just before midday we arrived at the Kaleum Coal Project camp.

This meant time to say hallo to the more senior guys who I would be working with during the week before being shown to my room and then heading to the mess for lunch. This would be the start of a week where rice was the staple. Not that that was a problem as the opportunity to exercise wasn't high so at least this way and with no dessert options weight didn't become an issue. 

It must be nice to have an outdoor kitchen. Barbeques for the meat and the big rice vats are just around the corner.

I must remember on the next visit to site that they do not provide you with a towel as in normal at other mine sites I've visited. And as the laundry lady air dries all your clothing, she doesn't work on rainy days. So going to site during June (wet season) means the best way to not run out of clothing is to do your own washing and dry it on the chairs in your room. But at least being put in the management rooms means there is space to do so. Unfortunately the day I chose to start doing my own clothes washing was the day the laundry lady came back and took my dirty clothes basket away. So it was a very restricted range of uniforms for the rest of the week. 

One of the best things about the buildings on site, be it the office, mess or sleeping buildings, is that the rules are no shoes inside. So there ends up being a collection of footwear (mostly thongs) outside the doors and a lot of bare or socked feet within. The best thing about this is (especially with the amount of rain and mud about) the floors stay very clean. It also helps promote better aim in the bathrooms too it would seem ;)

The training group ended up being 8 people, from the Mining Manager and a few other engineers to the senior geologists on site and some of their juniors. The training ended up being more focused on the process of taking the drilling and creating a resource model, and all that entailed. So while not all the usual CAD tools were put on show, most of those that would be helpful were. Plus we had a little time to show off some of the newer tools that would be helpful now, and others for when production gets going, hopefully in the next 12 months.

The camp and office area is actually built above part of the coal resource and marks about the half life of the mine. The pit will hopefully provide 35 years (or more) of mine life and the camp area would disappear around year 15 if all goes to plan. And a clearing happening above the camp up the hill is actually so the land owner can build a nice new house. I'm not sure what they think of having to relocate in a decade or two. I learnt these facts as I received a brief pit tour prior to the final mornings training. 

The pit tour gave me the opportunity to better see the complexity of the coal structures, as well as the current trench sampling and mapping program that has been taking place. Around the area there are also about 20 drilling rigs in operation, which keeps the core shed quite busy. But ultimately the aim is for a 35 year plus mine life to feed a coal fired power station that will be built on site. This should be achievable given that the coal deposit stretches for upwards of 50 km. it's whether a second power station at the other end of the deposit is feasible or not becomes a question for Phonesack in the future.

So the rest of Saturday was pretty busy with going over last minute queries prior to leaving site. The drive from Kaleum to Pakse was reasonably uneventful. Wet muddy 4wd roads for the first half hour were very much like some of the mining pits and roads I've visited. The road was a little narrower in places on the trip back where some of the weeks rain had helped slump some of the roadside batters. There was still the mandatory vehicle change at the Phonesack Padou office followed by the butt clenching flat land local driving to complete the trip. "Professional" drivers in Laos (and Philippines) are not the most patient of people. It probably won't change how I drive, but it should. I would love a day to do the trip though as there are some fantastic photo opportunities out there.

I hadn't been to Pakse before (with the exception of driving the central bypass on the way to site from the airport), so a chance to spend an evening there was good. Unfortunately it was rather dark by the time I arrived so I didn't get to see too much of town. The Athena Hotel was my supposed place of stay, however the travel agent hadn't actually reserved a room for me. Fortunately there were rooms still available so I had the night there as planned. Then in the morning it was to the airport for the flight from Pakse to Bangkok via Savannakhet. No cancellation this time. Then 13 hours of thumb twiddling at the airport and now the red eye back to Perth.

Plenty of rice fields on the outskirts of Pakse. But that's not unusual for this part of the world.

All in all it ended up being a good trip. The chance to see plenty of new countryside, eat local food and train some newer users in  the software with the potential to go back again. Now to prepare for MineQuest Perth.