TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Software solutions and services provider Micromine has released the latest instalments of two modules within its comprehensive exploration-to-mining process suite of software, aimed at increasing miners’ confidence in their geological data.

Speaking to Mining Weekly Online from Vancouver on Thursday, training and support manager Frank Bilki said the 2013 version of the company's namesake product, Micromine, which is an exploration, ore modelling and mine design tool, had been overhauled and had new features added to it.

Micromine 2013 included two completely new modules for stratigraphic modelling and true implicit modelling, along with a number of other core enhancements and improvements to improve target accuracy and speed, which would aid in increasing the chance of finding economically workable deposits.

Enhancements and new features were also added to resource estimation, pit optimisation, three-dimensional (3D) modelling and resource scheduling functions.

Bilki said the two main new features placed Micromine in its own league.

With Micromine 2013’s new implicit modelling module, it was now effortless to create and visualise the most complex wireframes. The module now uses an industry-standard radial basis to model grade shells, lithology boundaries, faults and surfaces. These wireframes are readily displayed in Vizex, Micromine’s 3D environment, and are a valuable tool for finalising geological interpretations.

The other new feature of Micromine 2013 uses stratigraphic modelling to incorporate seam block models (SBMs), along with the associated seam modelling workflow.

“Seam modelling tools simplify the creation of SBMs, including splits, plies, overburden and interburden, even in stratigraphically complex areas. Micromine’s revolutionary stratigraphy display helps validate and visualise complex seam hierarchy,” Bilki explained.

Further, Micromine’s stratigraphic modelling tools honour the original data, with smart tools that handle seam pinching and missing holes, producing a geologically correct model.

“With the triad of exploration and design tools comprising traditional hard-rock samples, and Micromine’s implicit and stratigraphic modelling abilities, customers have some of the most powerful tools in the industry at their disposal,” Bilki said.

Micromine also relaunched its Geobank 2013 module, redesigning it from the ground up, using the latest industry-standard programming.

The application was designed to provide a single solution for the entire mining process by offering a framework for data capture, manipulation, synchronisation, validation, geological information, drill-hole management, quality assurance and reporting.

Geobank 2013 contains a variety of new and enhanced features and benefits designed to improve data security, data accuracy and reliability. Bilki noted that one of the highlights of the new software included improved reporting capabilities, which results in increased data confidence and user productivity, a broader range of reports, improved data transfer capabilities and a better user interface.

Other enhancements included usage tracking and task scheduling, simplified validation and audit, surface sampling, survey and X-ray fluorescence data management.

“This latest release can provide users with absolute confidence in their most important asset – their geological data,” Bilki noted.