product news
57
06.13
Latest version of Micromine
launched for African market
Micromine 2013, the latest version of MICROMINE’s exploration and
mine design solution, was recently launched for the African market.
MICROMINE Africa Sales Manager Craig Peek notes that Micro-
mine is a modular solution which allows for the capture, manage-
ment and interpretation of critical mining and exploration data. “It
provides explorers with an in-depth understanding of a project so
that perspective regions can be targeted more accurately, which
ultimately increases the chance of the project’s success,” he says.
Peek highlights the fact that Micromine 2013 contains a variety of
new user benefits and improved, intuitive functionality associated
with resource estimation and modelling, pit optimisation, annota-
tion layers and scripting, as well as new CAD tools. “These features
are designed to further improve operational efficiencies and ease-
of-use, and are highly relevant to exploration companies.”
Micromine 2013 supports rotated block models, which are mod-
els with axes that are not parallel to the co-ordinate system. Peek
explains that one, two and three dimension rotations are supported:
“Orientating the block to match the orebody means they are a better
fit with reality, producing a small model and saving processing time
and disk space. It also makes more geological sense and is closely
aligned with modern reporting requirements to confirm continuity of
grade and geology.”
Due to increasingly complex mining processes and diverse user
needs, Peek says that the highly sophisticated Python programming
language automation tool has been introduced within Micromine
2013. “Python was designed for teaching and is one of the easiest
programming languages to learn, with comprehensive mathemati-
cal tools,” he explains.
Through Python, users can create their own solution while retain-
ing Micromine’s ease-of-use. Users will be able to develop tools
specific to their needs and run their own Python programs on top of
Micromine. Python is supported by many third-party packages and
libraries, providing geospatial, statistical, graphic and user interface
design tools, amongst others.
Micromine 2013 incorporates seam block models (SBMs) along
with the associated seam modelling workflow. Seam modelling
tools simplify the creation of SBMs, including splits, plies, overbur-
den and interburden, even in stratigraphically complex areas.
According to Peek, the package includes simple tools for gener-
ating surfaces and solids. “Using these tools, it is easy to create 3D
models without the need for a deep understanding of geostatistics
and interpolation,” he says. “These models can then be used on
their own as visualisation tools, or as templates for a traditional in-
terpretation.”
Micromine 2013 also introduces a comprehensive range of new
features and improved functionality related to Vizex, Micromine’s
3D display functionality. Peek adds that Micromine 2013 includes
seam correlation, annotation layers, seismic SEG-Y, drillhole solid,
colour/hatch/symbol sets, line styles and stereo 3D.
Craig Peek, MICROMINE Africa tel (+27 11) 514-0860
Drillhole cylinders generated by Micromine 2013.
