That’s where Maptek GeoSpatial Manager comes in.

This powerful tool delivers a single source of truth for all your as-built survey surfaces, combining automated updates with smart visualisation and secure access for your entire team in one centralised location. The result?

Smarter decisions, streamlined collaboration, and fewer delays.

Stop searching. Start seeing.

GeoSpatial Manager removes the guesswork from surface management by automatically merging and updating survey data. Whether you’re reviewing the current state of play or tracking changes over time, the dynamic surface model ensures you’re always working with the most accurate version of your site.

Define and access key surfaces at any point in time
Instantly visualise change using colour-based comparison tools
Highlight conformance issues or areas of concern for survey follow-up
Calculate volumes between dates, elevations or design surfaces

One platform. Unlimited users.

GeoSpatial Manager is built for collaboration. With one licence covering unlimited users, your entire organisation can access and share surface data whether they’re in the field, the office, or a different site entirely.

View surfaces through a simple web interface
Export surfaces to downstream packages for planning or design
Apply insights directly to tasks like drill and blast, compliance or rehabilitation planning

Time travel made simple

Using the time slider, you can scroll through the life of your project and select any surface snapshot along the way. This feature supports better planning, historical review, and communication across teams.

Need to see what the site looked like last month before the rainfall event?

Planning a volume reconciliation between last quarter’s excavation and today?

You’ll find it in just a few clicks.

Test drive GeoSpatial Manager

Your site is constantly evolving. Make sure your surface data evolves with it accurately, automatically, and accessibly. Whether you’re tracking conformance, sharing data across teams, or planning your next move, GeoSpatial Manager is your single source of truth.

We offer two flexible, commitment-free ways to explore the platform. No credit card required.

30-day guided access using Maptek data
Get to know GeoSpatial Manager at your own pace using Maptek’s pre-loaded demonstration data. It’s a great way to explore key features without setting anything up.

7-day full access using your own data
Want to see how it works on your site? Use your own files to experience the full power of GeoSpatial Manager.

Ready to see GeoSpatial Manager in action? Click below to get started.

Q: What is the core concept behind Maptek Vestrex? 

A: Vestrex is designed to revolutionise businesses by integrating data, cloud computing and orchestration. It’s all about enabling seamless collaboration and unlocking innovative data applications across various processes and stakeholders. 

Essentially, Vestrex helps businesses such as miners, with complex, interoperable systems, to transform data into actionable insights, improve efficiency, and ultimately, drive better outcomes.

Q: What are the key components that make up the Vestrex ecosystem?

A: Vestrex is built upon three fundamental pillars: Data Services, Compute Framework and Orchestration. The Data Services pillar, anchored by the MDS (Maptek Data System), acts as the central integration hub. It ingests data from any source through open APIs and manages data and publishing permissions. 

The MCF (Maptek Compute Framework) powers machine learning and optimisation within our existing mining and geospatial solutions, enabling rapid calculations on scalable resources. 

Finally, the MOE (Maptek Orchestration Environment) is where the real revolution happens. It connects algorithms, executables and transformations, leveraging computational power and scalability across business and technical systems.

Q: How does Vestrex improve collaboration among different stakeholders in a mining operation?

A: Collaboration is at the heart of Vestrex. By centralising data in the cloud and making it accessible to all stakeholders, we break down silos and encourage teams to work together more effectively. 

Stakeholders across different roles, teams and even businesses can access and utilise technical data beyond traditional applications. 

Think about how valuable it would be to bring operations, plant, finance and logistics systems into the decision-making process around mine scheduling, especially when you can quickly generate multiple scenarios for consideration without the overhead of unnecessary cross-team meetings. 

This cross-discipline approach fosters the discovery of new and unexpected use cases, limited really only by your imagination. Being able to incorporate human-in-the-loop decision points within automated processes ensures that expertise and judgement remain an integral part of the workflow. Management can be confident that the data being generated and reported has been subject to the typical risk analysis and quality checks.

Q: What are the primary benefits of automation and orchestration within Vestrex?

A: Automation streamlines operations through harnessing real-time data, and integrating processes and systems. The decision-making process becomes much faster as a result. 

Orchestration builds on this by employing high-performance computing and application workflows to unlock even greater value from technical data, operational processes and business systems. 

By binding data and computations, Vestrex creates automations that streamline processes and data pipelines, integrating them seamlessly within broader operational workflows. This reduces manual intervention, minimises human error and frees up valuable time and resources.

Q: What is an example of Vestrex in action?

A: Imagine a scenario where real-time drilling data captured from downhole sensors needs to be integrated into the void modelling process. This measurement-while-drilling data provides valuable information for continuous monitoring and analysis of drilling parameters. Data from various sources, including drilling systems, is imported into MDS. This triggers an automatic transformation of the data into a format that the Maptek DomainMCF machine learning engine can use to model geological domain boundaries. 

The DomainMCF model is then converted into a customer-defined format, such as GeoTiFF, and sent to the customer’s data lake. Finally, the GeoTiFF files are automatically converted into polygons and pushed into Vulcan or GeologyCore, or indeed any modelling and mine planning software, for incorporation into the void modelling process. 

All of these steps are automated, requiring no manual intervention once the initial setup is complete.

Q: What about data security? How does Vestrex ensure that sensitive information is protected?

A: Data security is paramount for any business. Vestrex enables effortless data transfer across cloud and desktop environments, with secure data access and management from a centralised platform. We employ robust security measures, including encryption and backup protocols, to protect sensitive information and ensure operational continuity.

Q: How does Vestrex help businesses manage pressure to increase productivity with a shrinking workforce?

A: Significant impacts are being felt by mining and allied industries. These include diminishing resources; social, environmental, governmental and regulatory conditions; human workforce and skills shortages; and robotics and AI. 

One of the most significant risks in the next 5 to 10 years is the growing skills gap and a declining interest in mining careers. This will push the industry to find ways to capture and retain knowledge while identifying processes that can be automated. Keeping skilled personnel invested in their jobs is just as critical as making full use of every data point and embedding automation. 

Artificial intelligence is all very well, but it needs to be moderated by human intelligence, not necessarily because humans are ‘smarter’ but because someone has to specify what is required of the output, whether it makes intuitive sense etc. The downfall in human systems is that they can be self-referential, resulting in subjective decision making. The beauty of Vestrex is that it allows for human involvement within orchestration and automation regimes.

Q: How do you sum up the customer proposition of Vestrex?

A: We’ve defined several key areas where Vestrex delivers value to our customers. First, it enables access to applications and data from anywhere, allowing secure access to web applications, files and data from any device with an internet connection. 

Second, it allows businesses to scale resources on demand, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficient use of licences and cloud computing time. 

Third, it improves data security and disaster recovery through robust security measures, data encryption and backup protocols. 

Fourth, it reduces IT infrastructure costs by eliminating the need for on-premise servers and moving costs from CAPEX to OPEX budgets. This supports our customers who increasingly need to operate in a more agile manner to take advantage of commodity and investment conditions.

Fifth, it enables automation, streamlining operations by minimising manual intervention and accelerating tasks. This is critical to match the anticipated needs and skills of the workforce of the future.

Finally, it unleashes innovation by enabling the discovery of new and unexpected use cases to generate value.

Q: Is Vestrex only for mining businesses?

A: While the core market for Maptek technology solutions is global miners, the Vestrex ecosystem can generate value for all businesses. Fostering integration of data through open APIs, and invoking native and third-party processes and systems regardless of format or type, makes it a good fit for any company looking to automate and orchestrate workflows to streamline decision making. 

Maptek customers will experience an added advantage of native integration between their desktop licences and cloud solutions.

Q: How can businesses get started with Vestrex?

A: An early access program is already underway globally and we encourage potential customers to contact Maptek to find out how Vestrex can revolutionise their business. We’re excited to help our customers explore the possibilities and help them unlock the full potential of their data.

Interested in learning more?

Register now to watch our on-demand ‘Revolutionising Digital Mining‘ webinar as Simon Ratcliffe, Head of Experimentation and Technology, and James Mackenzie, Global Strategy Manager Core Technologies, outline ways Vestrex generates valuable connections between diverse data sources regardless of product, application, process or role, unlocking multiple collaboration opportunities across the mining value chain.

The mining industry has made many safety improvements in both surface and underground mines in recent years. New technologies, in large part, have made this possible. Examples of these include advanced mining software, slope monitoring tools, proximity detection and collision avoidance systems, and many more. With these technological advancements and improvements to safety protocols, the industry has reduced fatal accidents by 14% since the year 2000. Yet, with all this progress, there is always more to be done where safety is concerned, especially in the underground mining environment.

Safety in underground mines

Active surface mines vastly outnumber underground mines in the US. According to NIOSH, there were 12,103 active surface mines reported in 2021 compared to only 464 underground mines. Although the number of surface mines currently exceeds underground mines, the number of accidents and fatalities across both mine types are similar. In 2022 for example, MSHA reported 14 fatalities at surface mines with 12 occurring at underground mines.

Presumably, it will become increasingly difficult for surface mines in the US to get permits due to competition for land use and other factors. If that is the case, will the number of underground mines increase to fill the need for minerals and metals? And if the future of mining is mainly underground, what steps should the industry be taking to increase the safety of our nation’s miners as they work deep below the earth’s surface to provide the world with much-needed resources?

New research has safety implications for underground mining operations

Richard Bishop, Professor of Practice at Virginia Tech in the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering, is working to help answer this question. Bishop has found that drones and LIDAR technologies are key to collecting high-quality survey data which is integral to increasing safety and reducing accidents underground. His graduate school research has focused on surveying the underground mining environment using terrestrial photogrammetry, drones, and LIDAR scanner technology for applications like mine visualization, mapping, and more. Safety applications include geotechnical analysis, for example, which can provide mine operators with important safety insights about the environment they are working in.

From science fiction to reality: LIDAR for underground mining

Bishop’s research details how to collect high-resolution point cloud data utilizing drones and LIDAR underground. Their capabilities in an underground mine environment are impressive and the subject of many of Bishop’s recent technical presentations at mining industry events like the MINEXCHANGE 2023 SME annual conference and expo. Bishop’s latest research project aims to perfect procedures for flying drones in GPS-denied environments like in an underground mine. 

With some added modifications to account for the lack of GPS guidance, Bishop is able to use drones to fly into unsafe areas or areas that are too difficult to access while still collecting data at high enough qualities for important safety applications. For example, it can be used for mapping discontinuities and joints as well as numerical modeling for pillar strength analysis which can help prevent pillar collapses and keep miners safe. According to Bishop, the use of technologies like LIDAR and drones for mining was considered the stuff of science fiction not too long ago. Now they are growing in popularity due to increased affordability and technological advancements like superior computing power for processing.

Maptek PointStudio Software for better visualization and mapping of underground mining operations

To process and analyze the point cloud data and photogrammetry collected during his research, Bishop utilized the Maptek software PointStudio. Through his Maptek University Partnership, Bishop downloaded the latest version of PointStudio and created 3D models of geological features for better visualization and mapping of underground stone mines in the eastern US.

Partnering for a better future in mining

The Maptek University Partnership program helps to grant university students and professors access to the latest Maptek software like PointStudio in order to equip the future of the mining industry with the tools they need to succeed. “Maptek goes out of their way to support academic pursuits”, says Bishop, “I was treated like any other client and given one-on-one time with a technical specialist when I had questions about the software.” 

Maptek technical specialist, Nick Ingwers, was on support when Bishop called in. Ingwers helped Bishop filter out points, merge point clouds, and highlighted specific software capabilities that could help extract the geological features Bishop was looking for in his scans. “The technical support call with Nick Ingwers was a game changer for speeding up the PointStudio workflow and unlocking hidden software features”, Bishop recalls, “It really helped me save a lot of time and helped with my research while I was working on my dissertation.”

What’s next for room and pillar mining research?

Bishop has plans to continue his drone-based research in underground mines using PointStudio for data processing and analysis. In collaboration with the Alpha Foundation and West Virginia University, Bishop plans to address the MSHA pillar collapse initiative by mapping and scanning pillars in underground hard rock room and pillar mines throughout the eastern US. Bishop will utilize drones along with photogrammetry and LIDAR technology to scan pillars and then bring the data into PointStudio for change detection over a 2-year period. The team will visually monitor pillars for any signs of deterioration, increasing safety underground for miners throughout the US.

Energage is an employee research company that has spent the last 16 years surveying over 70,000 organizations and 27 million employees to identify top workplaces and the culture drivers that make them so successful. The Energage survey is entirely anonymous and empowers employees to share their real experiences about the company culture.

Maptek among the best companies to work for in Colorado

Out of the 6,400 companies nominated for the Top Workplaces award in Colorado, Maptek was recognized in the top 150 for the small business category by its employees. “We’ve put a lot of focus and effort into making a great work environment for people. This award confirms that our company is among the best places to work in Colorado and is a source of pride for all employees”, said Jon Dale, Senior Director of People at Maptek North America.

A progressive company culture

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maptek adjusted to a remote working environment for all its employees with safety as the top priority. “At the beginning of the pandemic, Maptek responded rapidly to ensure employees had a safe working environment and they have continued to adapt instead of trying to return to the pre-pandemic structure,” explains Amanda Wahrer, Mining Engineer at Maptek. 

After the pandemic emergency ended, Maptek adopted a hybrid working environment for most employees maintaining flexibility at its core. “Maptek had a reputation of supporting employees at and away from work prior to the pandemic accelerating awareness of that benefit on a larger scale,” Wahrer continues, “That reputation has held true in my experience as an employee of 4 years and I am happy to see Maptek continue to evolve what it means for an employer to offer flexibility whether that be working location, hours, or another need while still offering consistent support to its clients.”

Generous company benefits

Health benefits and a focus on wellness are also integral to what makes Maptek a Top Workplace. With health insurance premiums paid by the company and a 401(k) 100% match on up to 10% of annual earnings, Maptek North America aims to take care of its employees. A recent addition has been Wellness Day, a bonus holiday for Maptek employees to focus on their well-being. 

Delphine Quach, Mining Engineer at Maptek, shares the benefits and improvements she’s seen during her 5-year tenure at Maptek. “Maptek has always had their employee’s well-being in mind,” says Quach. “Maptek’s adaptability and willingness to make it work evolved with the industry and employees. One meaningful example is the flexibility to work from home, making it easier for me to transition from my maternity leave to my role within Maptek while still being able to spend meaningful time with my child. I have also seen new measures dedicated to the wellbeing of their employees such as a Wellness Day that has now become an annual recurrence.”

Opportunities for career growth

Since 2022, Maptek has experienced growth with new hires across multiple departments including technical services, software engineering, marketing, and sales. Promotions are a common occurrence as the company continues to expand and grow to meet the needs of its customers.

Maptek has also seen success with its internship program with most interns returning to work for the company full-time once their education is complete. Ben Tanner, Project Geologist at Maptek, shares about the program’s benefits. “The internship program at Maptek offers real-world projects that allow interns to make substantive contributions to the company, rather than just being stuck with menial tasks,” says Tanner, “[In addition,] the long-term presence of experienced employees at Maptek enables them to serve as valuable mentors and resources for their colleagues, creating a supportive and collaborative work environment for everyone.”

Maptek prides itself on being an exceptional workplace and is committed to creating a company culture in which its employees feel valued and cared for. This recognition from the 2023 Top Workplaces program has confirmed that Maptek employees are some of the happiest in Colorado.

Places in the annual intern program are highly sought after, and for good reason according to Program Lead Will Reid.

‘Maptek internships provide a unique opportunity to apply skills learned through their studies to software that helps the mining industry operate safely and efficiently,’ Reid said.

‘It improves their employability and for some interns is also a precursor to a role with Maptek.’

Read about the experiences of the 2022-23 interns below.

For Matt Stringer, the decision to apply for an internship with Maptek was an easy one, in part because of his experience working on his final year honours project.

‘Solving problems under the guidance of two great mentors was frankly the most fun I’ve had completing an assignment, so I already knew the quality of the people at Maptek and their engineering skills,’ Matt said. 

Matt has been building on previous internship work to implement a Property Editor, a multi-purpose tool to view and edit properties of any object across Maptek software products, using a combination of C++ and C# to tie in different applications to work together.

‘Every assignment or project throughout university was given in a single programming language. However, real-world problems are solved by integrating many different languages–writing an API in C# and feeding it information from C++ using JSON is not something I expected to be doing!’

Don’t be scared to apply for an internship until your final year of university because you’re too worried you won’t know enough to be useful … you won’t learn without trying!

Working on a real project has helped Matt alleviate his imposter syndrome and gain confidence in his choice of career.

‘Knowing I can write, and have now written, code that will be useful to real-world Maptek customers, the career path finally feels right.’

Matt’s intern experience in three words: Got a demo?

Ben Wheeler chose to do his internship at Maptek after hearing encouraging things about the company culture, and many positive opinions through partnering activities with The University of Adelaide.

‘I joined the UIX team, helping expand the functionality of the Animation Editor found in many core applications. This has included working in the back end, creating new data objects, and also on the front end tweaking the UI and working with widgets that render the Animation Editor,’ Ben said.

The biggest challenge for Ben has been working with large projects for the first time, having to jump in and comprehend such a large code base, with many layers of abstraction and interconnected code, but he can see the upside of the challenge.

‘My ability to understand and read code within large existing code bases will be invaluable for my future studies and career, where the team nature of programming often means you’re experiencing code written by others,’ he said.

I’ve learnt a lot about full stack development, as well as being constantly impressed by the depth and many use cases of C++ that I wasn’t even aware existed.

For anyone considering an internship, Ben has some advice: Don’t be afraid to ask questions!

‘The first few weeks I was full of questions and was constantly coming across things I had never seen before. The team was really helpful and more than willing to help explain, and I found it a really good way to quickly learn a lot of new things.

Ben’s intern experience in three words: Exciting, helpful and insightful.

Meeting some of the Maptek team at a careers fair called ‘The Big Meet’ gave Aiden Mazik the opportunity to learn more about Maptek, which sparked his interest to apply for the internship program.  

‘During the interview process I really enjoyed being tested on the way I solved a problem rather than memorising specific programming principles, which other workplaces quiz you on,’ Aiden said. ‘The workplace culture demonstrated during the interview was also very attractive.’

Aiden has been working on improving the waste haulage algorithm used in Evolution, moving from the previously greedy algorithm into a smarter linear programming algorithm. This will reduce the total time the trucks spend transferring waste, with the aim that an efficient schedule can reduce the total number of trucks required.

The confidence I have gathered in my ability to work in already existing code bases will be useful in adapting to future unfamiliar code.

One of the things Aiden enjoyed most about his internship was being able to allocate time each week to focus on his professional development, which we call ‘10% time’ around the office.

‘Spending dedicated time learning new skills to further develop professionally was invaluable to ensuring I was able to grow my skill set during my time at Maptek, which is not something other workplaces offer so readily.’

Aiden’s intern experience in three words: Insightful, fun and challenging.

Prajna Gupta had worked on personal projects and collaborated with her peers at university, but had never done a software engineering internship. However, after reading about Maptek mining software solutions such as DomainMCF, and the myriad of problems it tackles, she decided apply for the opportunity.

Prajna has been developing a web-based tool that allows database administrators to access and configure their BlastLogic Servers without having to remotely login.

‘The project is broken down into two websites, where the first focuses on the creation of server instances and database management and the second website is used to configure a specific server instance.

‘The server instance supports licensing, usage, client usage metrics and site information and involves a tech stack including HTML, CSS, Angular and .NET6. The database management aspect will ultimately enable BlastLogic to be configured in a full cloud environment offering a seamless experience,’ Prajna said.

This internship has given me an insightful experience as to how software engineering principles are used in real-world scenarios, and how to develop production-ready code.

Prajna really enjoyed the brain-storming sessions with her mentor and senior engineers, where she learned how systems are designed from scratch and the importance of UI design principles. 

‘It was interesting to analyse the viability of various solutions during our brainstorming sessions and come up with an appropriate one,‘ she said.

Prajna’s intern experience in three words: Insightful, challenging and practical.

Irhas Gill decided to apply for an Maptek internship because he was looking to gain software development experience and learn from coders in the industry to improve his own programming practices and skills.

Irhas has been working on creating new transactions for PointStudio that allow users to more easily perform geotechnical analysis on 3D laser scans. His first project involved clustering discontinuities in rock walls, the second created 2D bird’s eye view outlines of underground mines, and the last was finding key blocks in underground tunnels.  

‘I have enjoyed my latest project as it has been the most challenging so far. I created and tested several algorithms to try and solve the problem of key block analysis. I believed that algorithms and data structures learned in competitive programming and university work would be less useful in the industry setting, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could still apply that knowledge,’ Irhas said.

The biggest challenge was learning the coding standard and setting up my development environment at the beginning. I had never used a proper debugger before! It was quite a jolt to learn so much at once and while I’m still learning a lot, it has become easier.

One thing Irhas did not expect was to be talking to mining engineers about key block theory as part of his internship.

‘It was definitely interesting to learn about. I had mentioned my strong interest in a mathematical heavy project during my interview and this aligned really well; it was a welcome surprise,’ he said.

Irhas’s intern experience in three words: Geotechnical engineering internship.

Henry Nguyen decided to try for an internship with Maptek because he wanted to apply what he learned from his studies to further extend his experience and knowledge. He also wanted to find out if a career as a software engineer was a good fit for him.

Henry has been working on Maptek Account, developing web pages alongside internal tools and infrastructure to display dashboards for Maptek technical support staff.

‘Working together as software engineers has been most enjoyable. I have experienced teamwork at university, but most of my important projects were individual, so this experience has improved my collaboration skills.

‘The internship has provided further understanding of my career, and long-term areas of interest. My understanding of industry standards and having real experience working in a team will make course work much easier,’ Henry said.

One of the key learnings Henry is taking away from his experience is the importance of understanding, analysing and considering all factors before doing any coding.

‘The impact in the business environment is much greater than for personal projects, so there is a lot to consider before getting started. I also realised that software engineering is not always about coding; there are many other skills you need to master to be successful, just like in any other career,’ he said.

‘Stay curious, because there will be lots of things you will learn in an internship. Always expect the unexpected!’

Henry’s intern experience in three words: Amazing, surreal experience.

Viet An Nguyen wanted to intern at Maptek to gain hands-on experience in software development. 

‘Maptek is a reputable provider of innovative software and I wanted to benefit from building real-life software applications,’ Viet An said.

Viet An has been working on building the Core Logging Application, an app providing real-time lithology and boundary predictions that helps speed up the core logging process. 

‘This involves designing and implementing a Python REST API to facilitate communications between DomainMCF and Google Sheets, a cloud-based web application, to display meaningful results. The app is expected to turn core logging from a manual task into a machine learning-assisted, cloud-based process.’

Building a piece of software to be used by actual users will serve as a valuable experience that will be a tremendous help in landing a job after graduation.

Learning about new technologies at Maptek has been an eye-opening experience for Viet An, and she has relished the opportunity to learn more about them. 

‘IT is a vast field and people often don’t know which area they’re most interested in unless they can try it,’ she said.

‘I’ve learnt not to be afraid to ask questions. Working on explaining your thinking process clearly to others has been valuable. Putting yourself in the users’ shoes when designing the app is critical–what’s convenient and straightforward for a developer may not be so for the users.’

Viet’s intern experience in three words: Creative, flexible and exciting.

Keen to collaborate with like-minded organisations around mining technology research, in 2019 Maptek joined the Integrated Mining Consortium funded by the Premier of South Australia. High on the agenda alongside finding innovative answers to intractable problems, was the need to identify key steps to bring those ideas to market where they can deliver value to industry.

The Premier’s Research Industry Fund (PRIF) program is also supported by mining companies OZ Minerals, BHP, the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia and other technology providers.

PRIF Integrated Mining Consortium 2021 – 2022

Ahead of the consortium wrap up in early 2023, we spoke to Nigel Cook, director of the PRIF consortium, along with Simon Ratcliffe and Will Reid from Maptek, about their involvement and hopes for the future. 

Just before going to press, the Integrated Mining Consortium was highly commended in the Innovation category for the 2022 SA Premier’s Awards. Congratulations to everyone involved.

You can check out the bios for our contributors at the end of the blog.

Q: What do you think are the key ingredients for a positive consortium experience and outcomes?

Reid: Maptek – like many of the industry partners – had a clear role; provide the knowledge needed to educate our academic partners, but also provide the problems for them to solve. This particular consortium had the right mix of professionals who have difficult industry problems to solve, and some of this country’s best emerging thought leaders.

This process was a huge learning experience for everyone involved – myself included. If you aren’t open to being challenged by the people around you, are you sure you’ll be able to explore all possible solutions?

Fortunately we didn’t have this problem – we had people from every project genuinely interested in and open to the problems presented.

The project had three primary contributors from Maptek – Simon Ratcliffe, Mike Stimson and myself. Mike was the brains behind the optimisation changes that demonstrated the practical part of our work. Simon was able to take the theoretical concepts from our academic partners and translate them into mining terms that Mike could implement.

I sat in as the scheduling expert and we used Maptek Evolution as the mechanism to evaluate our results. I ran more than 1000 tests in Evolution, providing the good (and bad) news to Simon and Mike as changes were being made.

Ratcliffe: I think everything starts with the right people – people who are confident enough and good enough in what they do to be open to being challenged and influenced by a diversity of viewpoints and factors.

A culture that builds that right balance of resilience and agility is a key ingredient for a successful consortium appearance. This means building an environment where excellence, trying and failing are collectively owned and celebrated. People need to know and trust each other for this to occur and so working in proximity to the diversity of skills required for outcomes in the consortium is essential.

Q: What are the challenges – perceived and actual – for technology research projects?

PRIF Consortium Director Nigel Cook accepting Commendation

Cook: Technological research is highly challenging and far more great ideas end up being abandoned than those which succeed and are subsequently turned into marketable products. The challenges are many-fold. There are issues of designing a product that is cost-effective, which actually solves a problem, and which can be developed, tested and brought to market within a reasonable timeframe. 

Other challenges include: 

• Considering the competition – sharing IP enough to galvanise results but not giving away secrets before they are protected. 
• Developing a product that is sufficiently user-friendly that it will be used… and used correctly.
• Tech that is robust, reliable and able to cope with real-world complexity – in the case of algorithms/software applications – or especially harsh conditions – in the case of on-site sensors.

Critical for success is to find a champion – a company as much as an individual – who shares the researcher’s passion to not only carry out a successful project but to ensure that outputs are given every opportunity to mature into a potentially saleable product.

Effective dialogue and communication are essential to develop a relationship based on shared goals: find common language, understand the problem, and address risks and uncertainties.

During the lifetime of the PRIF consortium, we have experienced other challenges. The mining industry is often held to be conservative, with sentiments such as Why change things when they still work? Frequent role changes in end-user organisations have made it hard to cement long-term interpersonal relationships. And not least, an over-reliance on a lean workforce in industry without sufficient resources to address complex R&D issues that, although potentially beneficial, still require significant investment of time and/or capital expenditure.

Ratcliffe: The key challenge by far is crossing the chasm between having an excellent idea and taking it to a point where you can tell people about it, and then there is still work to be done to claw your way to a practical solution that is economically relevant and sustained by the industry. 

R&D is difficult enough, time consuming and can in itself be costly, but its practitioners often do not appreciate that an outcome from R&D is just the beginning of a pathway to commercial success, one that can be equally difficult, likely just as time consuming and almost certainly more costly. 

Miners on the other hand want something that works and gives results and do not necessarily appreciate the precariousness of taking a concept to a solution for them. This is the chasm that companies like Maptek attempt to bridge.

Q: How hard is it to balance the theory with the practical, or commercial realities?

Cook: Researchers often have an excellent command of their subject matter but don’t always have knowledge of the overall context, or the actual needs of collaboration partners. Dialogue is critical throughout the process of designing a project, seeing it through, and tailoring outcomes for the potential user.

In doing so, researchers need to be prepared to go beyond their traditional discipline boundaries, understand concepts from far-flung fields, and above all, learn to appreciate the economic perspectives of both their invention/innovation, and also the broader mining-processing value chain.

Throughout the lifetime of the consortium, we have endeavoured to expose our students and postdoctoral researchers to broader issues, encourage interdisciplinary approaches, and ensure that a partnership with industry is not only proposed but carried out in practice on a routine basis. This has been achieved by regular seminars and workshops involving our industry partners and by bringing the group together as a team with common goals rather than as a loose grouping of talented individuals.

Unfortunately, academics do not always possess a strong understanding of commercial realities, often leading to great science but relatively low levels of implementation. This reality necessitates the involvement of experts in that area, and a willingness to take advice and let technological development (and implicitly commercialisation and implementation) be guided by people who understand the needs of industry as well as the broader landscape.

Q: Is Australia tackling the R&D differently to other parts of the globe?

Ratcliffe: Australia enjoys a decades-long reputation for being innovative with R&D in the mining landscape, a position many would argue is the envy of other mining countries. Yet we still manage to starve homegrown ideas of the critical capital and time that is needed to go from idea to success. We are in a boom time in this space at present, yet so much more could be done to improve outcomes. 

I do fear that in the next downturn the industry will revert to sourcing solutions from elsewhere because ‘elsewhere must be better at it than we are in Australia’. If anything, ‘elsewhere’ is where Australia should be focussed on delivering its world class mining technology solutions coming from the robust R&D environment (institutionalised and on the ground) that we have established.

Q: What are the benefits of industry partners such as Maptek contributing to research programs?

Cook: The PRIF consortium has benefited greatly from the involvement of different industry partners, each with their own interests and position in the market. The involvement of partners like Maptek has provided us with real-world problems to address, including real data that has all the complexities often ignored in more theoretical studies. It has also contributed context for the research, based on need rather than intellectual curiosity, and expert advice based on in-depth knowledge of industry needs and markets that allows us to provide informal mentoring to early-career professionals.

Potential pathways for future development, commercialisation and implementation of PRIF consortium outputs, including co-design of commercialisation roadmaps, and introducing us to other potential partnerships, is a significant benefit of industry involvement.

Likewise, we hope that participation in the PRIF consortium has benefitted Maptek and other partners in terms of exposure to new ideas and approaches, potential links with other partners, and access to a mature, well-rounded future workforce.

Reid: While Maptek contributed to a small number of projects, we took an interest and offered advice to several other problems being investigated. It was really positive to see people take our thoughts and opinions seriously, and equally as encouraging when they offered potential changes to our project approach.

This also led to a moment that resonated with me – seeing our project sponsors become excited by what we were producing. They were able to see how the solution could be applied in the real world, and to their current operations.

Our project came in two parts, and so did our feelings about the results. In the first part of the project we were able to visualise the result of uncertainty in geological models. This was a real ‘wow’ moment as it had previously not been quantified in this way. It gave us real motivation to then use that uncertainty to try and optimise out the risk.

As we moved to the second part of the project – using the results of uncertainty to make effective decisions to the schedule – we struggled to quantify success due to the amount of geological noise inherent in large operations. We were able to work past this and produce good results, but the delay [bottleneck] took us by surprise.

One of the most exciting outcomes is devising an effective mechanism to visualise and quantify uncertainty. This can be applied by geologists and mining engineers who have multiple realisations of their geological model to see where additional drilling is needed and to quantify the risk around that uncertainty.

The second part of our work is ongoing and if successful will minimise the effect of that uncertainty by making more confident mining block choices. We hope to publish our second paper on the topic in 2023. 

Coming from an academic family, I was thrilled to be able to assist in producing my first paper!

Q: What’s the human impact of ensuring we prepare for the future and what is the next big challenge?

Ratcliffe: The human impact of not being up to this task is incalculable loss of human life and human-induced stresses and strains on our natural world the likes of which we have not seen before. For people in mining, the gravity of this situation needs to not lead to conservative thinking and paralysis, but rather an openness to new methods, new ideas and new skills to complement and augment what is already being done well whilst leaving behind counter-productive practices and outcomes.

There is a large and important role here for translating research thinking and outcomes into solutions that are approachable by and practical to both exploration and mining companies.

There’s a broad-based consensus nowadays that climate change is indeed anthropogenic and that we need to decarbonise our societies to first mitigate and then hopefully reverse its effects over the coming centuries. Not only that, but humankind will also need to invest trillions in direct mitigation measures such as bolstered flood, wave, wind and fire protection of people and infrastructure. 

This is arguably the largest collective enterprise in human history and the basis of any chance of success will come from an abundance of construction, electrification, battery storage and computational materials to get the job done. Materials in the required quantities can only come from one source: mining. The next big challenge is preparing the mining industry so that it is up to this monumental task.

Q: Can you tell us more about the goal of ‘integrating all of these solutions into a comprehensive ESG framework’? What will the ultimate benefits be?

Cook: The last decade has seen a rapid awareness that technological development is not only intrinsically linked to economic realities but also to evolving ESG goals. The world needs minerals like never before, and coupled with a decrease in discovery of new resources and declining grades in existing operations, miners face major challenges to meet ESG targets, compounded by ever greater public and regulatory scrutiny.

The PRIF Consortium aims, through its inventions and innovations, to create a safer, more secure workplace, a mining sector that has the social licence to operate, and a minerals industry that is committed to causing as little environmental disturbance as possible, using less water, energy and chemicals, and reducing waste. These are formidable aims but through optimisation and increases in efficiency at all stages of the value chain, we believe we have a significant contribution to make. 

If widely implemented across the industry, these contributions can ensure significant savings. Examples would include PRIF consortium projects targeting a reduction in energy and water for milling, or sensors that allow better monitoring of processing operations that can deliver   improved throughput and metal recoveries. Our solutions assist to support a vibrant, efficient minerals industry that can be acknowledged to play a positive role in the transition to a low-carbon future.

Ratcliffe: Collaborative ecosystems are difficult to just create and ‘switch on’. But once they are up and going, they are very sustainable, robust and resilient things able to adapt to circumstances and adopt new best practices very quickly. 

If Maptek can create a platform that enables IP that would otherwise forever be stranded at the research stage to have a commercial pathway into the mining sector, then this would be transformational to the mining industry.

About our contributors 

Will Reid is Maptek Global Development Strategy Manager for a portfolio of scheduling and blast management products, producing solutions that empower customers to optimise their operations and improve productivity and profitability. Will’s enthusiasm for software and mining allows him to apply an innovative computer science and data-driven approach to solving complex mining problems.

Professor Nigel Cook works in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Adelaide. He is Director of the Premier’s Research and Industry Fund Innovative Mining Consortium program, was previously Director of the ARC Research Hub for Australian Copper-Uranium and was recently named as Australia’s top expert in the field of Geochemistry and Mineralogy!

Simon Ratcliffe has worked on various Maptek hardware and software development projects since 1995. As Chief Technology Officer he drove the strategic objectives for solutions development to meet industry needs and now as Head of Experimentation, Simon focuses on identifying and exploring new ideas for technology applications.

On the back of the get-together, Adelaide-based Global Development Strategy Manager Will Reid and Global Product Strategy Manager Jesse Oldham, who is based in Salt Lake City, share their thoughts on the relationship between the overarching vision of the organisation and everyday planning and operation.

How do you explain the difference between strategy and planning?

Will : Our Maptek ‘Strategy’ job title refers to the way we look to review and adjust product offerings and development processes based on the future industry needs. Once we define that strategy, we can plan for it. If we don’t continue to look at our strategy, we will end up being reactive to change, rather than anticipating it!

Jesse: I see planning as laying out the tactical steps to guide us in execution. Strategy is what lays out the bigger picture and helps to guide us on where we need to be and when. Strategy informs the plan, which informs the execution.

A key strategic initiative is to empower users to make better decisions every day.

Which comes first – planning or strategy? 

Will: You can’t plan something if you don’t have a strategy for what you’re working towards. A strategy is typically quite broad, whereas a plan is focused on executing one portion of that strategy.

What’s the difference between product strategy and development strategy?

Will: Product strategy tells us what kind of problems our customers want us to solve in the future. Development strategy looks to match those requirements with the best way to present it to them. As an example, one of our newest products – GeoSpatial Manager – provides users with a single source of truth for surface scans. This is product strategy. It is being delivered through a web service, meaning people can access GeoSpatial Manager from any web browser. This highlights our development strategy.

What are three key strategic initiatives for Maptek?

Will: We want to empower our users to make better decisions every day. We aim to do that by providing our solutions in easier ways, through the use of web services and simpler licensing.  Secondly, improving customer experience and ultimately their success! Thirdly, we aim to become the premier solution provider for integrated mining services. When we get together we look to address how the product and development teams can support all our strategic initiatives with these areas front of mind.

Strategy is not just for the highest level – how does it filter down in an organisation?

Will: Ultimately, the strategy has to be accepted by the various team leads and software developers. You can’t expect people to be excited about what they are working on if they don’t understand the project or believe in the outcomes. At Maptek we inform the wider business, followed by more in-depth meetings with our team leads, listening to their comments and concerns along the way and making adjustments as needed.

Jesse: Building on Will’s comment, as we execute on our strategy we want to involve all layers of the organisation to continually inform the success of the strategy and execution. We want to involve all areas, levels and regions to take advantage of different contributions and skills. Of utmost importance is input from our clients, providing a continuous feedback loop to measure success and reset if necessary.

Meeting in person is an invaluable way to strengthen relationships and drive collaboration.

One of the key strategic objectives in the Maptek 5-year plan includes accelerating planning cycles to efficiently deliver products without compromising quality.

What strategies do the development strategists set to achieve that?

Will: The most effective approach is to provide development teams easier methods to release their work more often. Planning for releases is definitely an involved process, so streamlining those elements and making each phase as quick and effortless as possible will allow for changes to go out more frequently and seamlessly.

Delivering solutions to market in new ways allows us to provide updates to users instantly! When your chosen email provider changes the look and feel of their service – there’s no changes to install, it opens and runs, hopefully with a few days notice.

What about the product managers?

Jesse: We aim to refocus all our solutions and services around customer success. This means paying attention to the problems solved, to the user experience, and to the way customers access and subscribe to our solutions.

Another key objective is to ensure technical interoperability and/or integration between our products and our partners. What are the challenges with that and how does Maptek solve them?

Will: Older technologies can limit our potential for integration, but this doesn’t mean it’s impossible. To expose areas of our functionality to our other software products or that of external partners, agreeing on open standards of communication is the easiest way forward. We can do this using open APIs, the industry standard for sharing information between services. Over time I can see a Maptek Federation of Services, where products and services talk to each other seamlessly.

Jesse: The services that Will mentions here look to be an integral part of how we will deploy solutions in the future to the end user, as well as to help integrate with customer data teams and industry partners.

What tactics did Maptek use during the covid restricted travel period to ensure the right people were in the conversation around strategy?

Will: As for most of the world’s organisations, Maptek took a while to settle in to new routines. Moving to online meetings was somewhat complicated, as we wanted to ensure we had the right people in the meeting, which at times meant a large group of attendees who overall only needed to participate for parts of the discussion. Ultimately we settled on the right frequency and participants for our discussions. Determining strategy isn’t a quick exercise. The whole process will take several months, if not years. By then, we’re ready to start the whole process again. This is all part of the process of innovation – the strategic vision for Maptek is big, so we accept that navigating our way through it is going to take time.

Jesse: While it certainly was a challenge adapting to a new way of working with covid, the remote meetings made us think about our interactions in a different way. Rather than only having involvement from people in the room, we were able to broaden input and get feedback and buy in from various levels of the organisation.

Who helps to inform your strategy?

Will: It comes from everywhere! The further forward you look, the more risk there is – but there’s a greater potential reward. Discussions with our customers is our largest source of future needs. Our staff are also great contributors to new ideas. A recent cultural change sees staff being actively encouraged to explore their ideas – no matter how out of left field. Results from several experimental projects have been incorporated into solutions that customers are using today!

Jesse: As Will said, our customers and the interactions we have with them are paramount in helping us form strategy. The key is to not do so in a reactive way. Sure it’s important to understand current needs, but also to discern future problems that will be in need of a solution.

Will and Jesse agree that there are times that product and development strategy don’t align, but it’s not because they don’t see each other enough! Sometimes what the product needs to solve is at odds with the underlying architecture. When this happens, we stop and adjust our strategy – identifying and involving the right people to work out a new path forward. Then a new plan is formed and we continue – this is part of being agile .

The 2022 release of DomainMCF raises the bar for data-driven model generation. New functionality incorporates prediction of numeric variables in the block model output.
Numeric attributes could represent analytical grades from a chemical laboratory such as gold grades or coal quality, or they could be geometallurgical or geotechnical variables such as bond index or rock mass rating. Numeric data is included with the relevant domain code.

Don’t ignore missing data

Missing data within the numeric fields must be carefully managed, as not all geological intervals will have valid information for some of the specialised tests. For example, the crucible swelling index number won’t always be measured for metallurgical coking coals, or the potentially acid forming classification won’t be available for ore or mineralised waste material. 

The prepared data file is sent to the DomainMCF compute engine for validation, analysis and processing. Domain and numeric data is output as a conventional regular or sub-blocked block model. The geological domain boundaries are predicted in 3D and then the prediction of grade trends is constrained within these geological domains. This is analogous to what are termed hard boundaries in conventional resource estimation practice. 

Grade trends generated by DomainMCF display the 3D distribution of any modelled attribute. It may be the distribution of gold or copper grades in stockwork mineralisation or the penetration rate from blast hole measurement while drilling data. 

Uncertainty is good

In areas of uncertainty, grade trends can be used to target where to drill and collect data to improve confidence in the geological model. 

DomainMCF grade trends can also be used as input to locally varying anisotropy (LVA) estimation techniques. The grade trend vectors in x, y and z replace the standard sample search ellipsoid orientations and facilitate grade estimation around fold hinges and curved domains.

Remember that the grade trends predicted using machine learning are not to be confused with grade estimates for resource reporting. 

Future research and development is underway to tune the underlying processes to convert these grade trends to grade predictions. 

Learn more about the impact of uncertainty in resource models.

Over the years, Maptek has continued to evolve training offerings to suit unique learning styles and offer greater flexibility with busy schedules. Here are a few questions for Maptek customers to consider when thinking about training: 

1. Do you like to engage with an instructor, or do you like to learn at your own pace?
2. Do you enjoy learning with others, or do you enjoy learning alone? 
3. Do you enjoy an in-person setting? Hybrid learning? Or do you prefer an exclusively online learning environment?
4. Do you want to use Maptek standard training data or your own?

Once you have thought about your learning preferences, you are ready to explore the different training experiences.

Online Training 

Maptek online asynchronous training means mining professionals work at their own pace, on their computer, using their licence. Online Training courses include data sets, step-by-step guidance, and knowledge checks. 

Current online course offerings cover Maptek technologies such as Vulcan, BlastLogic, and PointStudio and take you through popular concepts such as importing/exporting data, mine design basics and optimising blast patterns. Our Online Training team is always adding new course material and updating our current training content to keep learners as informed as possible.

Instructor-Led Training (Remote & In-Person) 

This synchronous learning option entails an instructor sharing their screen and walking mining professionals through step-by-step demonstrations, class activities, case studies, and where and how to apply the tools. These synchronous learning courses include data sets, step-by-step guidance, class reference notes, and in-session knowledge checks. Discussions between attendees and instructors are engaging, revealing insights around technologies for mutual benefit. 

Maptek offers more than 55 courses for our products, with several instructor-led options outlined below. 

Regional Classroom Training

Classroom training involves courses comprised of mining professionals from different backgrounds, companies, and mining operations. Attendees learn how to use Maptek solutions in a broad spectrum using standard datasets for real-world applications. In-person and remote options are available. 

Custom Classroom Training

This option takes classic classroom training to another level of customisation. Learn in a classroom setting with mining professionals from your mining operation. Companies and teams can customise topics and the data used. This approach benefits mining operations with unique geology, mine design or geotechnical features. It can also be a great way for colleagues to bond and form interpersonal connections that boost productivity and job satisfaction. In-person and remote options are also available for classroom training. 

Hybrid Learning Programs 

This option offers customised plans that leverage Online Training courses and instructor-led training. It allows mining professionals to benefit from both online and synchronous training to ease their way into learning Maptek solutions while making the best use of their time. This option has become increasingly popular as it integrates well with busy professional schedules and is highly flexible. 

Training Setting

Different learning experiences require a variety of training settings. For example, a classroom environment is not the best option for every Maptek solution. Some Maptek technologies such as our Lidar scanners, Sentry systems, and mapping solutions require a field-based training setting for best results. Over the past few years we have developed ways to accommodate this type of training in-person or remotely to suit the customers. 

Where to begin?

Once you have identified your learning preferences, we encourage you to work with your local Maptek office to explore the learning options that work best for your specific needs, budget, and timeframe. Our customer education professionals are ready to walk you through the best options for your situation and help you succeed with your Maptek solutions.

The traditional paradigm of modelling is more data = better models = greater confidence. The reality is more data = bigger models = longer time. The upshot is less time for thinking = hasty decisions = lower confidence.

Machine learning improves on the old paradigm. More data is still better. Clean data is even more important. Intuition is still valid. But the model should be driven by the data, not the bias of the geologist.

You can trust data-driven modelling

Get your data right, then you can sit back and relax. The results may even be available before you’ve finished your coffee. Your geological knowledge lets you choose the best option from a range of potential models using the same data. An inherent measure of uncertainty attached to the model allows mine planning to proceed with confidence.

DomainMCF has been tested with more than 100 million data attributes from one of the largest
ore deposits in the world and delivered a 3D domain model with grade trends
for 25 different variables in less than four hours.

The interplay and correlation between grade trends is preserved in the machine learning workflow. In areas of uncertainty, grade trends can be used to target where to drill and collect data to improve confidence in the geological model.

Challenging the old paradigm

I don’t challenge the old order lightly. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with some traditional methods. We just don’t have time to use them properly with big data.

Our industry has 60 years of confidence in kriging and its variants and 30 years of experience in different forms of simulation for resource estimation and reporting. A new technique requires extensive comparison with and validation against accepted practice before becoming the new standard.

This comparison process is happening exponentially. I’m amazed at the response – we already see companies subscribing to DomainMCF for use in domain modelling for resource reporting.

Grade trends are not yet grade estimates

However, we must remember that grade trends predicted using machine learning are not to be confused with grade estimates for resource reporting.

Using DomainMCF, geological domain boundaries are predicted in 3D and then the prediction of grade trends is constrained within these geological domains. Currently, DomainMCF grade trends can be input to locally varying anisotropy (LVA) estimation techniques. The grade trend vectors in x, y and z replace the standard sample search ellipsoid orientations and facilitate grade estimation around fold hinges and curved domains.

When we released grade trends in March 2022, I noted that further R&D is required to tune the underlying processes to convert these grade trends to grade predictions. Industry feedback will help DomainMCF do that.

What people are saying

‘I joined Maptek in 2021 after working as a geologist around Australia for more than a decade. As a veteran of Vulcan, I’ve been using traditional methods to help customers with resource modelling, so my introduction to DomainMCF blew me away.’
Andrew Sanggaran, Maptek Technical Services Consultant – Geology

‘DomainMCF is fast and simple to set up and run. Processing 3750 samples and 2 million blocks took less than 2 minutes. Comparing the marble quality classification produced by DomainMCF to the conventional method it was clear that the machine learning classifications appear more uniform. The machine learning engine also provides a measure of uncertainty for predictions. This is useful for identifying areas where more sampling may be required.’
Dr Ioannis Kapageridis, Professor, Department of Mineral Resources Engineering, University of Western Macedonia

‘Machine learning will become particularly attractive if the process can not only model geological domains, but also return reliable grade estimates for mine planning across the full range of mineralisation styles. A well-understood confidence measure can assist in risk quantification of both geology and grade.’
Fletcher Pym, Senior Mine Geologist, IGO Limited

Watch this space

The industry has been struggling to find experienced personnel during the current mining boom, so embedding years of experience into smart systems helps get the job done on time and under budget. DomainMCF is a standout among smart systems, and smart miners can prove it for themselves.