Mining software solutions and services company MICROMINE Africa aims to generate business for its geological data management solution, Geobank, and its exploration and mine design solution, Micromine, amid a significant increase in potential exploration leads in Africa over the past three months, despite the downturn in exploration projects worldwide.

MICROMINE Africa customer services manager Craig Peek tells Mining Weekly that, owing to the difficult economic climate and the capital intensiveness of exploration, mining houses are aiming to sustain their current operations, rather than to explore potential greenfield operations.

“The feeling from this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba was that, because only 2% of exploration projects in Canada resulted in the development of mines, there was a significant halt on exploration projects worldwide,” he says, adding that experts have suggested that an improvement will only take place by mid-2015.

However, Peek points out that exploration is starting to increase, particularly in Africa, with nine exploration projects under way in Ethiopia, for example.

“MICROMINE Africa is a strong competitor in the exploration sphere,” highlights Peek, who predicts that the next mining boom will be in Africa, which means that next year’s Mining Indaba will be a significant event for the company.

“This is because the success of the Mining Indaba is based on exploration in Africa, a continent renowned for hosting the bartering and selling of mining tenements, particularly those owned by smaller exploration houses.”

He notes that smaller exploration houses are an important market segment for MICROMINE Africa, as they are often pulled into major exploration companies, subsequent to a resource being found, which ultimately provides MICROMINE Africa with exposure to the major companies.

MICROMINE Africa’s Coal Success
Peek tells Mining Weekly that all the major coal mining houses in South Africa are using the company’s Geobank software solution, owing to its coal-specific module.

All the company’s software packages are modular, enabling the company to customise a solution for every client.

Peek explains that the major coal players in South Africa conveyed their requirements for Geobank to MICROMINE Africa, which, in turn, enabled the company to standardise a package that can calculate regression curves, besides other feature-specific requirements of South African coal mines.

Geobank is a database management solution that captures all exploration and production data and stores it on a centralised database. The solution works most effectively as an exploration software package in conjunction with the company’s geological field-logging software, Geobank Mobile, which enables users to capture data, such as core samples, at drill rig locations. The information is then stored on the Geobank database.

Geobank and Geobank Mobile also have strong validation capabilities such as identifying orebody intervals and end-of-hole depths.

“MICROMINE Africa believes that a mine is nothing without valid data, as all the decisions mining houses will make using this data can impact significantly on the extraction phase of a mining project,” Peek asserts, explaining that Geobank’s exploration data is carried through every phase of a project, therefore providing validated information throughout the life of a mine.

He adds that Geobank and Geobank Mobile promote data integrity, as the information is stored on a secure database and can be changed only by an administrator.

Geobank also saves a copy of the previous data whenever a change is made. This enables administrators to revert to a previous version of the data should the subsequent data be compromised through human error.

“Because of the validation processes Geobank’s data undergoes, investor confidence in an exploration project is dramatically improved. This is particularly valuable to smaller exploration houses that are aiming to sell a tenement. Data is captured on internationally recognised software and is in a legible format, which will significantly improve the chances of smaller exploration houses selling tenements,” Peek asserts.

Staying Ahead
He notes that MICROMINE spends a significant amount of time and money on research and development to stay ahead of the competition. Subsequently, a new version of any of its software is launched every 12 to 18 months.

The company launched the latest version of Micromine 2014 in Johannesburg last month. This is the fifteenth version of the application, which enables users to capture, manage and interpret critical data to support the mineral extraction process, from the initial exploration phases to the final operation phase, explains Peek.

Micromine 2014 is hosted on one platform that simplifies the use of geological information for geologists to quantify the orebody and for mining engineers who create mine designs, optimisation plans and schedule the life-of-mine, he says.