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Cracow cracks the payload code

Cracow looks to MineSuite to Improve Average Truck Payload 

Cracow is a high-grade, low-tonnageunderground gold mine located

approximately 500 km northwest of Brisbanein central Queensland. It is a steeply dipping,narrow vein, epithermal gold and silverdeposit accessed via a decline from surface.The orebodies are 5 metres wide on averageand the ore is extracted via sublevel openbench stoping. Stopes are extracted to astrike length of approximately 25 metresbefore being backfilled with waste rock.

The mine runs three loaders (two underground and one on stockpile)

and four Toro 50 tonne trucks. Ore is trammed using tele-remotecontrolled loaders from the stope into an adjacent stockpiled area.Trucks are then loaded from the stockpile.

After a recent competitive evaluation process, Cracow decided toimplement Maptek MineSuite™ for Underground Fleet Monitoring.The predominant business issue that needed to be addressed was totake the current average payload of the trucks from 43 tonnes to anaverage payload of 45 tonnes. When this is achieved, MineSuite willhave given Cracow a return on investment within 12 months.

The MineSuite system will provide Cracow with:

• Real Time Display of Truck Payload. During loading, both on thetruck being loaded and on the loader, allowing the operator to loadtrucks consistently to an appropriate level.

• A Proximity Awareness System to notify truck and loader operatorsof close proximity of any mobile equipment. The aim is to achievezero collisions between mobile vehicles.

• Automated Production Recording. The goal is to achieve 95% ofloads at the desired tonnage. When a truck arrives at a loader, a‘load’ will be recorded by the MineSuite system; during loading thetonnage will be stored and displayed. The truck then leaves theloader and travels to the weighbridge on the surface, where the

operator is able to enter the weighbridge value on the screen.

The truck then travels to the dumping location. The system willrecord a ‘dump’ when it receives a signal from the truck dump

switch. The following production data will be captured for eachtruck trip:

- Payload system tonnes

- Weighbridge tonnes

- Time stamp of dump signal

- Time stamp of start load

- Truck ID

- Loader ID

• Report Generation

Capabilities . Two reports arerequired, one with a ‘truckfocus’ and one with a ‘loader focus’.

Importantly, filtering of obviouslyincorrect payloads allows reporting of representative averages.

• The Truck focus report will be similar to the loader focus report,but will show one histogram for each truck and an accumulatedhistogram for all trucks.

The solution will be implemented over a Motorola MOTOMESH Solo™Single Radio Meshed Network WLAN. This will ensure that all trucks

and loaders can communicate with each other at all times.

MineSuite is the only system to provide this capability. The networksolution was especially important for meeting the zero collision targetthrough the Proximity Awareness System.

Implementation begins this quarter with Phase II seeing theintroduction of delay monitoring and further reporting facilities.

Thanks to

Cracow Gold Mine

Weighbridge at Cracow Gold Mine

MineSuite report displays the actual weight of the load vs the target

In 2002, joint venture participants approved development ofthe Cracow underground mine, including refurbishment andupgrading of the existing treatment plant. Mine developmentcommenced in December 2003 with first gold production inNovember 2004.

Maptek was able to address the critical issue of raising the currentaverage truck payload from 43 tonnes to 45 tonnes.

View into Mine Portal (above) and

CAT R2900 loader (left) at Cracow 

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Topographic Scanning Streamlines Stripping

Rio Tinto Alcan is a supplier of bauxite,alumina and primary aluminium to

domestic and export markets. It also producesspecialty aluminas for advanced ceramicsand fire retardants, anodes and technologysolutions for aluminium smelting, and

a range of engineered solutions for theaerospace and transportation industries.

Rio Tinto Alcan recently trialled a new method for overburden removalat the Gove operation in Australia’s Northern Territory. An accuratevolumetric analysis of the pre- and post-trial surfaces was required totest the validity of the method.

Measuring and generating accurate volumes is a routine task,

easily handled by the Maptek I-Site 3D laser scanner.

Currently, overburden is removed by scraper and bulldozer. Thismethod assumes that the bauxite deposit is fairly consistenttopographically. The consequence of variation is that large volumesof contaminant material could be sent to the processing plant.

This adds substantially to the cost of the operation, firstly in conveyingthe waste material and decreasing the efficiency of the refinery, butmost significantly in the cost of extracting the waste silica materialbefore processing.

Four trial areas of about 4,000 square metres each were excavatedafter the normal stripping process. Maptek staff surveyed the site withthe I-Site 4400LR laser scanner before and after excavation. Scans wereconducted at regular intervals to give a point separation of 200 mm,which provided sufficient detail for modelling.

One day was allocated to scan the four areas prior to excavation,and two days to scan the irregular final surface. Surveying usingconventional methods would have taken at least a week.

The trial areas were relatively flat before excavation, and highlyirregular afterward. The I-Site 4400LR measures points in a fixedangular grid, so to obtain ground points at the fine resolutionrequired, the scanner was mounted on a 4 metre wooden tripodnormally used with a laser leveller.

The increase in elevation provided a better perspective on the survey

area, enabling the survey to be completed in high detail with fewersetup points.

The excavation process also revealed old water drainage areas suchas creeks and gullies that had filled with sand – material that wouldnormally be sent to the plant with the ore.

The data was processed in I-Site Studio software. The trial areas werefiltered to a consistent 200 mm point separation and topographicmodels were created. The final surfaces were compared against the

originals using the I-Site Studio ‘distance from surface’ colouring tool,which shades the final surface according to the distance from theoriginal, enabling the user to easily identify areas of change.

This tool also computes the total surface change and outputs ahistogram for further analysis, such as calculating how removal of thismaterial affects the grade of the ore deposit. Grade estimations havevaried greatly in the past from adjoining regions, probably due to theold drainage lines.

The trial proved to be a great success, with significant cost savingsidentified. Further work may be scheduled after evaluation of thedata is complete.

Using the I-Site 4400LR to survey the site before and after strippingthe overburden reduced the scanning time from 1 week to 3 days -a saving of 40%.

Subscribe to Forge: email forge@maptek.com.au

Accurate volumes for cost-efficient overburden removal

captionCaptionBenefiot Modelled scan data

for one of the Alcan Gove trial areas (above),transverse ridge indicates an old drainage line

Histogram at right showing total surface change

can be output to Excel™ for statistical analysis

Thanks to

Rio Tinto Alcan

Gove Operations

20 scans were taken prior to excavation, and 47 scans wereacquired of the highly irregular surfaces post-excavation. Each scancontained up to 600,000 points.

Overburdenremoval

uncovered

hidden

anomalies,

such as this old

drainage line

Consistent technical and software standards

Proven technology adaptable to site requirements

Skilled professional staff for consulting and field trials

Solution meets site standards for industrial safety

Demonstrated economic benefitsEase-of-use saves time in the field

Accurate data improves mine productivity

The Maptek Advantage

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Endeavour Silver Corp. is a Canadian based miningcompany focused on the growth of its silver production,

reserves and resources in Mexico. Expansion programs arenow underway at the high grade Guanaceví Mines Projectin the state of Durango and the Bolanitos Mines Project inGuanajuato. Endeavour is also actively exploring projectsin Chihuahua and Michoacan. The Company’s acquisitionand expansion programs should enable Endeavour Silverto join the ranks of the world’s top primary silver producers.

Maptek Vulcan™ is currently used extensively in all exploration

projects in Mexico, and was acquired by Endeavour in 2005.

One of the areas currently under mining and exploration is the SantaCruz mine at Guanaceví in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Mining bythe Spanish dates back to the 16th century. The district of Guanacevíwas renowned for its high silver grades, historically one of the topsilver mining districts in Mexico. In 2007 Guanavecí Mines produced1,910,000 oz silver and 3,957 oz gold (silver equiv = 2,128,000 oz).

The deposit is modelled in Vulcan using exploration drilling, but themodel is also updated with channel samples collected during themining process. It was decided to use the channel information tomodel the minimum mining width for the vein. This is achieved byselecting from the channel a length that is at least equal to that width.A geometrical problem arises here with calculating the minimum

real thickness of the vein at each channel. Because the channels aresampled at different angles from the vein, it is difficult to establishthe actual minimum width based on the channel orientation and veinazimuth and dip in an efficient way.

A compositing method was devised to obtain the actual channellength that represents a minimum mining width. The minimummining width in the real vein thickness direction is projected on thechannel plane in order to obtain a length in the channel direction.This length is then used to create an ore composite, including internalwaste as necessary, using the standard Vulcan compositing tools.

The procedure is repeated for each channel. There are thousands ofchannels in the mine, each with a different orientation in sectionswhere the vein changes orientation. In order to automate this, alava script was created to perform all of the geometric calculationsbetween the vein triangulation and each of the channels. The scriptalso creates the actual ore composites.

The channel samples are then used in conjunction with explorationdrillholes to define mineable vein boundaries. The start and endpoints of the channel composites are used to build the footwall andhanging wall. A simple database calculation script is used to classifychannels according to the orientation in which they were created, thusthe starting side of the channel is known. For channels going fromthe footwall to the hanging wall, the start coordinate represents thefootwall and vice versa. The channel points are also controlled bythe vein model from the drilling sections.

After this pre-processing, building the resource model is straight-forward in Vulcan. The vein model is then triangulated using boththe section polygons and the start and end points of the channelcomposites. A resource block model is then built, and estimated forsilver and gold. A Net Smelter Return (NSR) value is calculated forfinancial evaluation.

For resource classification, regions are generated based on differentincremental distances around the drillholes; resource blocks are thenclassified based on their distance to the closest drillhole. Mined-outzones are removed from the vein model and reserves are calculatedbased on a mine plan developed by the engineering department.

Thanks to

Luis Castro, Exploration Manager 

Endeavour Silver Corp.

Resource modelling with Vulcan at Endeavour Silver Corp.

Overall view of part of the main vein showing minedevelopments, channel samples and exploration drilling

The town of

Guanaceví in

the Sierra Madre

Mountains

Channel samples and drillholes displayed with surveyed developments (above)

Stopes were removed for easier visualisation (below)

‘Vulcan was a key tool that helped us toefficiently add all our constraints to ourmodelling. The high level of automation in theapplication of complex 3-dimensional featuresprovided us with valuable results.We are really happy with the time we savedand the accuracy achieved with the modelcreated in Vulcan.’ 

Luis Castro, Exploration Manager, Endeavour Silver Corp.

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Australia Adelaide phone 61-8 8338 9222 fax 61-8 8338 9229 info@maptek.com.au

Brisbane phone 61-7 3316 2800 fax 61-7 3012 8222 info@maptek.com.au

Newcastle phone 61-2 4968 7100 fax 61-2 4968 1344 info@maptek.com.au

Perth phone 61-8 6211 0000 fax 61-8 6211 0011 info@maptek.com.au

Sydney phone 61-2 9957 5554 fax 61-2 9922 7551 info@maptek.com.au

Brazil Belo Horizonte phone 55-31 3224 4888 fax 55-31 3224 6908 info@maptek.com.br

Chile Viña del Mar phone 56-32 269 0683 fax 56-32 269 0628 info@maptek.cl

Mexico Cancún phone 52-998 892 0030 fax 52-998 892 7785 info@maptek.com.mx

Peru Lima phone 51-1 444 0346 fax 51-1 444 0349 info@maptek.com.pe

South Africa Johannesburg phone 27-11 918 0829 fax 27-11 918 6636 info@maptek.co.za

United Kingdom Edinburgh phone 44-131 225 8447 fax 44-131 225 4928 info@maptek.co.uk  

United States Denver phone 1-303 763 4919 fax 1-303 763 4921 info@maptek.com

www.maptek.com

Issue 2, 2008

Training tomorrow’s mining engineers

Maptek conducted aVulcan training sessionfor professors at theUniversity of Chihuahua,Mexico, in April 2008.

The professorsappreciated the chanceto become familiar

with the Vulcan toolsthat they will pass onto theirstudents. Professor Angelica Mena,head of the Geology Laboratory, was impressed with Vulcan’sease of use, workflow setup, data access and reporting tools.

After the introductory training, Mining and Metallurgical EngineeringCareer Coordinator, J. Alfredo Márquez, commented that ‘givingstudents the opportunity to access the best technology availableshows we are concerned about providing excellence in academicprogramming’.

‘We are committed to developing the capabilities of our professors,and we understand the importance of Vulcan in the formationof competent mining professionals,’ Ing. Márquez added.

Maptek has supplied more than 500 academic licences of Vulcan

software to premier universities around the world. InstallingVulcan in the learning environment benefits both students and their

future employers. Graduate mining engineers and geologists canapply the knowledge gained and effectively hit the ground runningwhen handed a task.

 New options in MineSuite 4.8

Maptek MineSuite 4.8 software, providing new options for manualdata entry, was released to customers on May 1.

The primary new feature is the ability to apply a Delay Template inManual Data Entry, making it much quicker and easier to recordcommonly recurring delays.

Shift duration, total delay duration and non-delay time are nowdisplayed for each process at the bottom of the Delay pane.

The next level of scan processing

Maptek I-Site Studio 3.1™ represents the latest advance in the miningindustry’s favourite scan processing software. We’ve listened to whatI-Site Studio users have been asking for, and have spent many monthsadding fantastic enhancements to deliver even more meaningfulresults from scan data.

Top 10 Enhancements in Studio 3.1

Apply photographic imagery to any modelled surface using dragand drop functionality

Build animations effortlessly – simply specify a series of key framesto generate a movie

Tie multiple window views together with a click of a button

Remove stray spikes caused by dust, vegetation or other structuresin 2D surfaces with a simple right click operation

2D text remains visible in all visualisation modes

Handle new file formats such as Optech IXF formatted scans, customASCII file formats; also group .txt formats into scans, points and surveypoint categories, customise imported ASCII file format

Break apart contours into individual lines

Register scans to an underground frame for stope surveys

DataEngine enhancements such as faster compaction of largeDataEngines and improved DataEngine stability

Automatically detect a USB storage device and prompt to importscan files from it

Eric Gonzalez, Maptek (centre) andUniversity of Chihuahua staff 

‘Definitely what I liked most were thevisualisation tools and being able to createpresentations in animation or ‘walk through’mode. Having software such as Vulcanfor geological modelling and resourceestimation positions the University ’sEngineering Faculty among the top schools.’

Professor Angelica Mena

© 2008 Maptek Pty Ltd Articles may be reproduced with acknowledgement, email forge@maptek.com.au.  Maptek, Vulcan, I-Site, and MineSuite are registered andunregistered trademarks of Maptek Pty Ltd; Maptek Computación Chile Ltda; Maptek Computación Chile Ltda, Sucursal Perú; Maptek S de RL de CV; Maptek Informáticado Brasil Ltda and KRJA Systems, Inc. Registered marks are registered in one or more of the following countries: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Spain and the USA.

‘Maptek is in the process of redefining the MineSuite roadmap forwhich user input will be critical. We are surveying our customersto help us gain deeper insight and understanding of their needs.

Maptek is renowned for unparalleled customer service and support. Wealso seek to understand the challenges our customers face and developsolutions that help them to meet - and exceed - their expectations.’

Roger Davis, Product Marketing Manager, MineSuite

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Vulcan

Ambre Energy Pty Ltd, a coal-to-liquids specialist based in Brisbane,Queensland, has acquired Vulcan for geological modelling.

Farallon Resources Ltd, a Canadian company with a zinc-rich polymetallicasset in Guerrero state, Mexico, has purchased Vulcan for modelling,surveying and visualising the underground operation.

General Moly, Inc. a molybdenum mineral development, exploration and

mining company, has purchased Vulcan for exploration of sites in Nevada.Gold Corp Inc. has selected Vulcan for its Éléonore Property, a majornew gold discovery in Northern Québec, Canada. Vulcan will be used forresource estimation.

Golden Phoenix Minerals Inc. Ashdown Project has leased Vulcanfor its Sylvia Mine, a molybdenum operation in Nevada. The softwarewill be used for geological modelling and underground mine design.

Golden Predator Mines Inc. has purchased Vulcan for its SpringerMine in Nevada. The company will use Vulcan for mine planning,design and scheduling of open pit and underground operations.

Hybrid Energy South Australia, a subsidiary of Strike Oil Australia,has purchased Vulcan Enviewer for presentations to internal andexternal stakeholders. Hybrid Energy holds petroleum and mineralexploration licences over large lignite deposits on the northern edgeof the Otway Basin near Kingston in the southeast of the state.

 John Holland Mining, an Australian mining and engineeringcontractor has purchased Vulcan for its Werris Creek Project. Vulcanwill be used in this challenging steeply dipping multi-seam operationfor detailed mine design (including drill & blast) and reserving forinput into the short-term scheduling package. Vulcan has also beenpurchased for corporate Head Office, to provide a mine planningservice for clients and to support the project teams as required.

Leyton Consulting has purchased Vulcan for geostatistics applications.Leyton works across a wide range of industrial markets includingmining, defence and engineering in Australia and Europe.

Meridian Mining Services, Queensland has acquired Vulcanfor mine modelling, survey and drill & blast applications.

Moultrie Group, which provides contracting and consulting services formines in eastern Australia, will use Vulcan for geological modelling.

Nautilus Minerals Inc. has purchased Vulcan for mine planning of its highgrade sea-floor massive sulphide (SMS) deposit of copper, zinc, gold andsilver. The world’s first potential sea-floor copper gold mine is 1,500 metresbelow the surface at the Solwara 1 project in the Bismarck Sea off PapuaNew Guinea.

Orelogy, an innovative mine planning consultancy based in WesternAustralia has purchased Vulcan for geological modelling.

Oro Silver Resources Ltd, based in Zacatecas State, Mexico, one of theworld’s largest historic silver districts, has acquired Vulcan for underground

modelling, open pit mine design, pit optimisation and ventilation design.

QCoal Pty Ltd, headquartered in Brisbane, has acquired Vulcanfor modelling and reserving for the joint venture developmentof the Sonoma Coal Mine in Queensland’s Bowen Basin.

Sweetman Earthmoving, contractors based in the coal mining areaaround Moranbah, Queensland, will use Vulcan for mine design andreconciliation.

Teck Cominco will use Vulcan for underground mine design andscheduling at the Pogo gold mine in Alaska.

Troy Resources NL has purchased Vulcan for resource estimation forleases in the Andorinhas Gold Project in north central Brazil andgreenfields gold exploration in the sandstone belt in southwest Western

Australia. 

Vale-Inco Limited, a leading producer of nickel, copper, cobalt andprecious metals, has purchased more than 50 Vulcan licences for use atT1, Birchtree and T3 mines in Thompson, Manitoba. Vulcan will be usedfor underground mine design, scheduling, geological modelling, survey,ventilation design, drill & blast, haulage and grade control.

Xstrata Frieda River, a copper-gold project near the border of theSandaun and East Sepik Provinces of northwestern Papua New Guinea,will use Vulcan for geology, geostatistics and resource estimation.

I-Site

Petro-Canada has purchased an I-Site 4400LR system with heated batteryfor their new Fort Hills oil sands mine outside of Fort McMurray, Canada.

Petro-Canada has been using I-Site Studio for over a year, and will nowhave licences for use at head office in Calgary as well as on site. Afterrenting a system to evaluate the benefits, Fort Hills decided it was thebest choice due to its speed and ease of use.

Gulfoil has purchased an I-Site 4400LR system for its blasting and earthmoving contract division, IDLConsult, based in Hyderabad. Gulfoil is alarge diverse group producing industrial explosives, lubricants, agriculturaland other speciality chemicals, as well as mining industry consumables.

BMA Poitrel in Central Queensland has purchased an I-Site 4400LRsystem and an extra Studio licence. Poitrel is the fourth Billiton MitsubishiAlliance site to adopt the I-Site 4400 system in Australia. Poitrel will useI-Site for daily survey work as well as detailed geological mapping.

MineSuite

BHP Billiton’s Leinster Nickel operations will install MineSuite forunderground fleet management at the Perseverance mine, 645 kmnortheast of Perth, Western Australia.

 Maptek users conference

Maptek will host a Users Conference targeted at our South American

user community from August 19-21 at the Marbella Resort, 90 km

south of Viña del Mar on the coast of Chile.

Users will be able to find out more about our products, hear aboutinteresting case studies, and see expert Maptek users in action.Exchanging ideas with other mining professionals, and a fun social

program, will balance the solid technical agenda.Call for papers closes July 11, with expressions of interest on topicsranging from 3D geological modelling, open pit and undergroundmine design, optimisation, mine planning and scheduling.

Visit www.maptek.cl/conferencia2008/index.html 

 New Maptek global customers

Geostatistics in mining course - 2009

Maptek will host the prestigious University of Alberta Geostatistics

Citation course in Perth in February-March 2009.

Expert geostatistics teacher and researcher from the University of AlbertaCivil & Environmental Engineering department, Dr Clayton Deutsch willconduct the four-week residential course with support from Maptekmining engineers and geologists.

The course involves theoretical and practical study, with students gainingknowledge in the theory and use of modern geostatistical tools in mining.Following the compulsory teaching sessions, participants work onindividual or group projects, with Maptek and other industry professionalsas mentors.

Students who complete the course, including the project phase, willbe awarded the Citation in Applied Geostatistics from the Faculty of

Extension at the University of Alberta, Canada.

Maptek has provided support for six previous courses in Chile, includingthe most recent in March this year, and one in Denver in 2007.

Visit www.maptek.com/geostats.html  for course outline and to register.

‘We are very pleased to be hosting the first Citation course in Australia.This course is ideal for a wide range of mining professionals – fromthose running grade estimations to more experienced users who mightneed a deeper knowledge of the theory and practice of geostatistics.’

Claudia Monreal, Technical Services Manager

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