Maptek has increased its shareholding in PETRA from 25 to 100 per cent, following a strategic partnership that began in 2019. The acquisition brings together two technology companies founded by mining professionals, united by a shared commitment to unlocking value through deeper orebody knowledge and geological variability.

Founded more than 40 years ago, Maptek develops integrated solutions that enable mining organisations to transform data into knowledge across every stage of the mining lifecycle. PETRA, established over a decade ago, is recognised globally for its advanced orebody learning software, which leverages data fusion, ore tracking and machine learning to deliver granular, high‑accuracy insights that optimise the mine‑to‑mill value chain.

“Maptek is invested with PETRA because their technology adds significant value to our customers’ data in ways that were truly first‑of‑their‑kind,” said Peter Johnson, Chairman of Maptek. 

“PETRA invented digital mine to mill AI software, and they remain well ahead of the industry. By bringing PETRA fully into the Maptek group, we can support their continued innovation while delivering even greater value to our customers.”

Importantly, PETRA will continue to operate as a standalone business, retaining its strong brand, culture and technology‑agnostic approach. Dr Penny Stewart will remain as CEO, ensuring continuity for customers, partners and employees.

“Maptek and PETRA speak the same language,” said Penny Stewart, CEO of PETRA.

“We share the same fundamental purpose: using orebody knowledge to create value across the mine value chain. This acquisition allows PETRA to remain agile and independent, while benefiting from Maptek’s global network and corporate support.”

Both companies emphasised that their immediate focus remains on delivering innovation and value to customers. PETRA is progressing toward the release of MAXTA 6.0 in 2026, featuring advanced agentic AI designed to convert optimisation insights directly into measurable value for mining operations.

Integration opportunities between Maptek and PETRA technologies will be further explored in future phases.  Maptek’s new Vestrex platform enables automation of data management, computation and workflows and decision support across the whole mining value chain and will enable customers to leverage the power of both companies’ solutions in ways not possible before. 

With most mining technology providers now owned by equipment manufacturers or private equity, Maptek’s continued independence offers customers confidence, flexibility, and a long‑term focus on solving high‑value mining challenges.

Together, Maptek and PETRA aim to redefine how orebody intelligence is created, shared and applied across the mining industry.

About PETRA

PETRA is a global leader in orebody learning software that leverages data fusion, ore tracking, and machine learning. This technology allows mining professionals to optimise the mining value chain, increase overall equipment efficiency, and benefit from the revolutionary accuracy of orebody knowledge at a granular level.

PETRA’s software is purpose-built by mining professionals who are serious about creating value through geological variability.

The name “PETRA” is from the Greek feminine word ‘petra’, meaning “stone, rock”.

The confidential survey uniquely measures the employee experience and its component themes, including employees feeling Respected & Supported, Enabled to Grow, and Empowered to Execute, to name a few.

‘Earning a Top Workplaces award is a badge of honor for companies, especially because it comes authentically from their employees, said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO.

‘That’s something to be proud of. In today’s market, leaders must ensure they’re allowing employees to have a voice and be heard. That’s paramount. Top Workplaces do this, and it pays dividends.

‘We are truly honored to receive this recognition as a Top Workplace by the Denver Post for a second year in a row. This acknowledgment underscores our commitment to fostering an employee-centric and flexible work environment, a culture shaped by the dedication and contributions of our incredible team members over the years,’ said Jon Dale, Senior Director of People at Maptek.

About Maptek
Maptek has been at the forefront of innovative mining technology for more than 40 years. Our solutions target all mining types and commodities, providing the link between the geological, spatial design and execution stages and safe, productive operations.

Maptek builds strong relationships with our customers and the wider industry, valuing collaboration as a key path to success. Our staff are motivated by excellence, innovation and improvement.

Listening to customers and research into industry trends helps ensure that we embrace the latest technologies in developing practical, decision-support solutions that meet the needs of miners.

Maptek believes that the key to make mining more efficient is to support miners to make better decisions. Integration is particularly important as it enables them to transform technical data into knowledge at every stage of the mining life cycle. Ultimately by fully integrating that knowledge, Maptek will change the way mining is done forever.

About Energage
Making the world a better place to work together.^TM

Energage is a purpose-driven company that helps organizations turn employee feedback into useful business intelligence and credible employer recognition through Top Workplaces. Built on 18 years of culture research and the results from 27 million employees surveyed across more than 70,000 organizations,  Energage delivers the most accurate competitive benchmark available. With access to a unique combination of patented analytic tools and expert guidance, Energage customers lead the competition with an engaged workforce and an opportunity to gain recognition for their people-first approach to culture. For more information or to nominate your organization, visit energage.com or topworkplaces.com.

This groundbreaking solution brings simplicity and efficiency to your workflow, revolutionising the way mining and civil engineering projects handle data from laser scans and drones.

GeoSpatial Manager effortlessly connects users with real-time updates for surveyed surfaces. 

Its smart visualisation tools and user-friendly interface redefine how you interact with as-built surfaces, enabling seamless collaboration and accessibility for all project teams within an organisation through a convenient web interface.

GeoSpatial Manager dynamically updates surfaces, allowing users to manage, visualise, and download any as-built surface at any given point in time throughout the project lifecycle. 

‘Customers can say goodbye to the challenges of managing vast volumes of survey data,’ said Global Strategy Manager, Jason Richards.

GeoSpatial Manager automatically updates as-built surfaces when new data is imported. Centralised storage on a cloud or network server avoids uncertainty around locating survey files that may be stored in various folders on a local or server machine.

‘Having the latest data at your fingertips eliminates the risk of using outdated surfaces for critical design work.’

GeoSpatial Manager allows users to review surfaces for specified dates and times, providing clarity on an operation’s current state and key historical stages.

‘We see improved collaboration and understanding – GeoSpatial Manager bridges the gap between data and value,’ Richards said.

Customers will be able to send surface data to other Maptek products knowing that GeoSpatial Manager provides the single source of truth for multiple systems. This interoperability harnesses the power of the Maptek ecosystem and streamlines project management. 

Having all team members working within the same framework enhances communication and workflow. A cost-effective single licence covers unlimited users across your organisation creating flexibility for changes in team size without licence adjustments.

GeoSpatial Manager is not just a product, it’s a game-changer. Experience the future of surveyed surface management with Maptek. Embrace efficiency, collaboration and clarity like never before.

Now in its third year, the Maptek Geology Challenge provides all participants access to DomainMCF, Vulcan and Vulcan GeologyCore software for one month.

The dataset enthralling Burden was predominantly drillholes collected around 40 years ago. Having 10-20m long assay intervals and inconsistent lithology records was challenging enough. Adding a pit, about to re-enter production, exposed to the elements since the 1990s made structural mapping even harder. 

‘Previously we processed data by manually flagging drillholes with different veins, assessed the model results and repeated ad nauseam,’ Burden said.

Free computing hours with Maptek machine learning engine DomainMCF was the incentive to try a more data-driven modelling approach.

DomainMCF allowed Burden to observe the 3D trends of grade distribution to visualise patterns, and add subsurface thrusts and faults that align with the structural mapping. This helped incorporate additional domains for fault blocks and folding to refine the veining in the models. 

‘I could really see where those structures were possible in the subsurface. Bringing the drillholes, the ATV data with structures picked, and the mapped data together within Vulcan GeologyCore helped to refine and place the structures that inherently controlled the mineralisation,’ Burden noted.

DomainMCF also helped assess structural relationships in the subsurface. Unsurprisingly, Burden found these structural relationships aligned with the mapped features present in the wall, highlighting the value of structural mapping and the insights revealed for geological modelling and controlling complexity.

‘It’s ideal for models to be largely data driven, but we also want to allow for some statistical fuzziness. Machine learning used in conjunction with the structural data was key in developing a more complete model, which is what we’re really hoping for!’

Caroline Burden, 1st place

Maptek awarded second place to Anthony Bottrill, Principal Resource Geologist at InterGEO Resource Consulting, who also relished the ability to easily combine data types. This allowed him to rapidly generate a first pass 3D geochemical model using multi-element data, displaying the natural trends before conducting any interpretation.

‘I was expecting to understand geological controls within the known data extents, what I didn’t expect was that DomainMCF would present plausible extrapolation outside of the data extents,’ Bottrill said.

‘This ultimately gave me a new understanding of the relationship between two adjacent deposits and identified a target exploration zone for the main feeder structure to the system at depth.’

He noted that while there are many tools for analysing multi-element data, typically this is done at the sample level (aspatial), because analysis in the 3D environment involves a lot of preparation and applied assumptions. 

‘DomainMCF required minimal input to set up and let the data speak for itself spatially,’ Bottrill said. ‘From there I could work on informed spatial interpretations in a way I have not been able to using other methods.’

‘The combination of Maptek geology tools allowed me to focus on the interpretation and think about the deposit controls spatially – this is where I believe the true value lies for a modelling geologist.’ 

‘Machine Learning, if used as another tool to aid our work, could offer new modelling opportunities for interpreting geology and orebodies.’

Anthony Bottrill, 2nd place

Third place was awarded to Evelyn Charlesworth, Computational Water Resource Scientist at Kōmanawa Solutions, for a project that sought to better understand coastal heterogeneity. Her favourite tool was the juxtaposition viewing slider for easily comparing geological outputs of models created from different datasets.

Maptek convenor, Senior Geologist Richard Jackson thanked all challenge participants, noting that the 2023 entries ranged across multiple commodity types and for resource geology and engineering geology applications.

‘We saw some truly innovative techniques used to solve a wide range of problems,’ Jackson said. ‘We set the theme of “controlling complexity” and the winning submissions exceeded our expectations in using DomainMCF to both understand and control the complexity in their models.’

Maptek applauds the fact that Burden plans to use the winning DomainMCF computing hours to continue to develop exciting new approaches to geotechnical modelling.

Hear from Geology Challenge winner Caroline Burden

Maptek VisionV2X gives all mine personnel vision underground, enabling them to make better decisions for keeping people and equipment safe.

Maptek will officially launch VisionV2X at stand 315 at Austmine2023 in Adelaide on Wednesday May 10 as part of the story around continuous technology innovation that began in 1981.

To create a system that miners could rely on for proximity detection underground, Maptek turned to proven technology in the automotive industry. Maptek engineers applied their software smarts, and combined their knowledge of mining with input from ergonomics and human experience experts to design a simple interface.

The result – VisionV2X – is operating hundreds of metres underground at one of the world’s largest underground copper mines.

Keeping people and equipment safe is the number 1 priority for mine managers, operators and supervisors. All while meeting their production output and decarbonisation targets.

‘Our latest product is firmly in touch with the Austmine theme Transforming the future and in line with our industry imperative to bring everyone home at the end of a shift underground,’ said Maptek CEO Eduardo Coloma.

‘That’s a lot of people,’ he continued. ‘The numbers around underground mines globally are staggering. Hundreds of kilometres of tunnels across multiple shafts, operating kilometres below the surface. And of course thousands of people operating heavy and light machinery in Wi-Fi and GPS denied environments.’

VisionV2X allows miners to see underground and around corners, with metre accuracy to ensure even fully loaded high speed trucks have time to react to each other in all conditions.

‘The Maptek proximity awareness system has underground safety as the key objective,’ added Coloma. ‘It can be fitted to any vehicle across a mixed manufacturer fleet that is commonly deployed in underground mines.’

Golden rules for any safety system are that it is reliable, easy to install and straightforward to use. At the heart of VisionV2X is an ergonomic touchscreen interface installed in heavy vehicle cabs that operators can rely on for visible and audible feedback around the proximity of at-risk personnel and vehicles.

The system continuously runs automated checks in the background to ensure VisionV2X is operating correctly.

VisionV2X is a strategic system that enables mine managers and supervisors to achieve operational safety KPIs. Detailed proximity data is logged onboard the vehicle and sent back to a central server for analysis and reporting, helping to deliver continual improvement in risk management and worker safety.

VisionV2X is developed and produced by Maptek, an Australian owned international company operating at the forefront of mining technology for more than 40 years.

Golden, Colorado, May 03, 2023 – Maptek has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2023 honor by Denver Post Top Workplaces. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage LLC. The confidential survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.

“Earning a Top Workplaces award is a badge of honor for companies, especially because it comes authentically from their employees,” said Eric Rubino, Energage CEO. “That’s something to be proud of. In today’s market, leaders must ensure they’re allowing employees to have a voice and be heard. That’s paramount. Top Workplaces do this, and it pays dividends.”

“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. Top Workplaces awards also help us locate and retain highly skilled technical employees in a challenging employment market,” said Jon Dale, Senior Director of People at Maptek.

About

Maptek has been at the forefront of innovative mining technology for more than 40 years. Our solutions target all mining types and commodities, providing the link between the geological, spatial design and execution stages and safe, productive operations.

Maptek builds strong relationships with our customers and the wider industry, valuing collaboration as a key path to success. Our staff are motivated by excellence, innovation and improvement.

Listening to customers and research into industry trends helps ensure that we embrace the latest technologies in developing practical, decision-support solutions that meet the needs of miners.

Maptek believes that the key to make mining more efficient is to support miners to make better decisions. Integration is particularly important as it enables them to transform technical data into knowledge at every stage of the mining life cycle. Ultimately by fully integrating that knowledge, Maptek will change the way mining is done forever.

Company Contact

Dede Butler

dede.butler@maptek.com, (303) 763 4919

www.maptek.com

Awards

About Energage

Making the world a better place to work together.^TM

Energage is a purpose-driven company that helps organizations turn employee feedback into useful business intelligence and credible employer recognition through Top Workplaces. Built on 16 years of culture research and the results from 27 million employees surveyed across more than 70,000 organizations,  Energage delivers the most accurate competitive benchmark available. With access to a unique combination of patented analytic tools and expert guidance, Energage customers lead the competition with an engaged workforce and an opportunity to gain recognition for their people-first approach to culture. For more information or to nominate your organization, visit energage.com or topworkplaces.com.

First prize: Cathy Barton, IGO

Barton had been intrigued that she and a geology colleague interpreted alternative orientations for pegmatite intrusions despite working on the same data. She also hoped to gain insights into the uncertainty of the location and thickness of the pegmatites.

The Maptek challenge provides entrants with access to Vulcan GeologyCore and DomainMCF software, with unlimited machine learning cloud computing access across one week, to come up with novel ways of maximising project value.

Barton, who won a batch of DomainMCF hours for her company alongside a personal prize, said finding a simple solution in DomainMCF made it practical to produce alternatives quickly, boosting confidence in existing models and highlighting areas needing review.

Barton described her data as ‘distressingly real’, comprising 1885 diamond holes drilled from surface and underground in widely varying orientations and directions by multiple owners over 30 years. Drillhole spacing ranged from 100 m with no sign of economic mineralisation to 15 m in some mineralised areas.

With domains categorised and data validated, the job was submitted to DomainMCF using the lithological grouping as the domain and six elements to estimate grade trends.

Within 30 minutes and 45 seconds DomainMCF produced an alternative geological model that honoured the drilling data and correlated well with the implicit model.

Barton appreciated that DomainMCF can be used as a validation tool for geological modelling, for example, highlighting areas where a vein model may be incorrect due to the modeller’s interpretation of the orientation. She also noted that DomainMCF helped in modelling intricate isoclinal folding as well as large regional faults.

Barton plans to use the DomainMCF machine learning hours to help review several different resources.

Second and third prizes

Yerniyaz Abildin, University of Adelaide postgraduate researcher, won second prize for a report that compared explicit, implicit and geostatistical modelling with the machine learning approach.

Second prize: Yerniyaz Abildin

Abildin noted the main advantages to be the ‘stunning’ speed of cloud computing and user-friendly domaining tools.

‘Vulcan GeologyCore had several utilities that as a non-geologist I had not previously considered. DomainMCF produced the result extremely fast – the run time exceeded my expectations by around ten times,’ Abildin said.

‘The interconnection between Maptek products is beneficial. It is easy to open the block model produced by DomainMCF in Vulcan and then analyse the results against previous model,’ he said.

Third prize was awarded to John Florek, Principal of Apical Exploration, who ran DomainMCF on a series of diamond drillholes for a high-grade gold deposit to see whether incorporating different geological trends and categorising them as a domain variable gives more geological control over the model.

‘The Maptek solution allowed a fresh new perspective to the deposit that we will be exploring. Trends that were not identified revealed themselves,’ Florek commented.

The performance of DomainMCF and Vulcan GeologyCore surprised Florek also.

‘The time it took to do these sophisticated models was amazing. It would take geologists years to develop comparable models’, Florek said.

Third prize: John Florek

Florek commented favourably on the ability to model domains with known structural controls for mineralisation, noting that it allowed him to create several models, and test them during exploration drilling.

Additional benefits for projects include quick evaluation of known deposits without the bias of earlier workers.

‘I could independently evaluate whether a property has higher or lower potential than what is being promoted. It’s a great tool for institutional investors.’

Maptek Senior Technical Lead Richard Jackson was impressed with the breadth of applications from entrants in this year’s Challenge.

‘The three winning submissions are great examples of how DomainMCF can be applied to very different problems, all gaining a little more insight into their data and adding value to the vastly different problems being tackled. It truly was a challenge of more than just domains!’ Jackson said.

In 1981 a small services provider aimed to transform manual geological drafting and calculation into a database solution that geologists could easily use for themselves. Forty years on, Maptek is a global technology business delivering hardware and software solutions to more than 20,000 users spanning the globe.

‘Of course, in geological terms, 40 is by no means old, but we have stayed young and relevant by continually refreshing our ideas, the way we work, and the technology we use,’ said Eduardo Coloma, Maptek CEO.

‘Maptek is well-known for providing the best tools for a wide range of mining applications. Now we are combining the best of the best tools to help miners make better decisions – integrated decision-making support systems are the key,’ he continued.

‘Recently we’ve delivered solutions that have been a successful combination of operational, data analytics and specialist mining application expertise.’

‘Maptek may not build all the software from scratch, but we will provide the integration and interoperability between systems and processes. Transforming raw data into technical and operational knowledge is important because it ensures decisions are guided by access to the right information.’ 

Coloma believes that customers need fast results, and expect their technology providers to be agile in service and solution delivery.

‘This is why we focus on cloud-hosted licensing and computing frameworks that enable our customers to work efficiently from anywhere at any time. We deploy machine learning and workflow-based solutions that take advantage of the latest technologies.’ 

The Maptek 5-year plan is scaffolded by an enhanced ideology that explains who we are and outlines the principles that guide our actions.

Create tomorrow – We will encourage new thinking and support change. 

Walk in their shoes – We will listen to our customers and reinforce relationships. 

Smarter together – We will work together and draw on each other’s strengths. 

Make it simple – We will brainstorm and turn complex ideas into simple solutions. 

Be courageous – We will be accountable for how we work, and we will never give up.

Maptek was founded to serve the software needs of the mining industry and we thrive on the challenge to stay at the forefront. With a clear purpose, our path will be straighter and simpler. Our industry will be able to tread that path with confidence.

ASX-listed K2fly is the leading provider of resource governance solutions for net positive impact in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) compliance, disclosure and technical assurance through its platform-based SaaS cloud reporting solutions.

As part of the investment Maptek Chairman, Peter Johnson, will join the K2fly Board as a non-Executive Director.

Maptek Chairman Peter Johnson will join the K2fly Board as a Non-Executive Director.

‘Maptek is very pleased with the opportunity to become a strategic investor in K2fly. We have a long and successful history of delivering technical solutions that increase the accuracy, safety and efficiency of decision-making for miners,’ Johnson said.

‘K2fly solutions complement our approach, enabling our customers to interact with all stakeholders including local communities, traditional owners, the investment community, regulators and the environment in an improved fashion.’

‘They do this by leveraging technology to ensure the ESG and reporting expectations of the community are met, as well as providing a sustainable platform for enhancement.’

‘K2fly is the leader in the field of creating and delivering the technology solutions to enable that, and sharing our expertise is the ideal way for Maptek to support that effort,’ Johnson concluded.

Jenny Cutri, Non-Executive Chair of K2fly welcomed Maptek as a strategic investor in K2fly and Peter Johnson to the K2fly Board.

‘The investment by Maptek makes it K2fly’s largest investor and represents a significant validation of the K2fly business and growth outlook by the world’s largest privately held mining software business,’ Cutri said.

‘On behalf of K2fly and the Board, we very much look forward to working with Peter and Maptek as we continue to grow the K2fly business.’

‘Peter’s wealth of knowledge in applying and scaling innovative technological solutions in the mining sector into sustainable and profitable businesses will be invaluable to K2fly. Further, our solutions are adjacent and there are many opportunities for collaboration,’ Cutri concluded.

About K2fly
K2fly Limited (ASX: K2F) is a ASX listed technology provider of enterprise-level Resource Governance solutions for ‘net positive impact’ in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) compliance, disclosure and technical assurance, to operations of mining and asset intensive industries through its platform-based SaaS cloud solutions. Our solutions address many industry challenges and help manage risk around clients’ social license to operate concerning reporting and governance, reputation and disclosure demands. We deliver a suite of Resource Governance solutions across three key areas on a single platform: Natural Resource Governance , Mineral Resource Governance and Technical Assurance.

Dillon, who works in Christchurch, New Zealand, applied a combination of Maptek geology tools to model complex shallow surface geology beneath a proposed engineering structure.

‘Our key problem was how to use all the data in the boreholes to model all the geologies and still get the low and high density sands in the right places throughout those drillholes,’ Dillon said.

‘The answer was to assign and use numeric values and combine the data with soil behaviour types and shear wave velocities to control the geological model.’

Dillon applied Maptek Vulcan, Vulcan GeologyCore, Data Analyser and DomainMCF for the challenge, which had to be completed over one week earlier this year.

‘DomainMCF handled complicated interfingering of sandy and silty materials and modelled sand-gravel interactions, generating the complex lithological interactions expected from braided river systems,’ Dillon said.

Speed is a known benefit of DomainMCF and proved to be the case for the Christchurch study.

‘We were able to construct a reasonable lithological model from drillhole and cone penetrometer test data for an area of known geological complexity. We sent 193,000 data points to DomainMCF and received our model after 13 minutes and 6 seconds!’ Dillon commented.

As well as displaying an innovative approach to geotechnical assessment of performance and design for the foundation of a future structure, Dillon provided invaluable feedback for improving the integrated modelling solution for all users.

‘DomainMCF has targeted the mining industry, but many other industries find traditional modelling processes to be equally time consuming – we can spread the benefit,’ Dillon said.

Winners of the 2021 Maptek Geology Challenge Henry Dillon, Golder (left) with Reece Stewart, Anglo American (top right) and Matt Green, Evolution Mining (lower right)

The challenge was launched as part of Maptek Connect, a 24‑hour online conference delivered in May. Maptek provided access to various software tools that participants could apply to a geology-related application of their choice, with an emphasis on innovation.

Dillon’s reward was a cash prize and DomainMCF hours for Golder, which he plans to assign to development projects that would benefit from the simple workflow approach that quickly produces an accurate geological model from a dataset.

‘I’ve already got a colleague in Canada who is interested in seeing what we can do with their oil sands project in terms of interpretation, so the opportunity to use funds for an innovative use inside a consultancy is priceless,’ Dillon concluded.

Second place in the competition was awarded to a team from Anglo American led by Reece Stewart for their innovative approach to overburden definition modelling, with third place going to Matt Green, Evolution Mining, who compared implicit modelling to DomainMCF for interpreting complicated geological structures.

Richard Jackson, Maptek Geology Team Lead and organiser of the global challenge said he was thrilled with the effort from all participants.

‘The winning entries were strong examples of well defined problems that were difficult to solve with traditional methods, highlighting the benefit of using machine learning to act on multiple data types to create a geological model,’ Jackson said.

‘Submissions displayed a range of novel techniques and applications that will contribute to innovation in our industry,’ he concluded.

Maptek anticipates running another challenge in 2022 and looks forward to ongoing industry collaboration to simplify modelling processes and inspire geologists to find additional applications for the machine learning technology.

Listen to the video of the winners below