 End-to-end mine solutions provider Micromine Africa has been
awarded a R3,3-million contract from the Namdeb Diamond
Corporation. The contract involves the installation of an automated
mine-control solution at the Namibia-based mine, which is made up
of Micromine’s PITRAM and DOME product offerings. Micromine
GM Mark Williams explains that PITRAM is a mine
production-management system that records and controls mine site
operations and DOME, which is a relatively new product on the
market, offers a Web-based information-management system that
provides a flexible and efficient environment for validating,
storing and acces-sing data from diverse softwar applications and
sources.
The primary objective of the Micromine solution is to increase
production at the mine, but more importantly, the system will
decrease Namdeb’s costs by effectively manag- ing the
mine’s resources and flow of information. Williams maintains
that the project will be rolled out in a phased approach, with a
fully trained live handover expected within four months.
He says that the solution that Micromine is providing will manage
Namdeb’s fleet, equipment, personnel, and maintenance. In
addition, the systems that are currently being used at Namdeb will
be integrated into a single auto-mated system when PITRAM is
installed. This provides the mine with a centralised data base
system, thereby improving transparency and communication within the
mine. What is more, the reporting function of the DOME solution
will enable Namdeb to keep a record of everything that happens on
the mine, allowing it to be proactive in its operations, and the
real-time solution will allow engineers to react immediately.
Essentially, the solution will eliminate the need for the mine to
capture data manually, as inform-ation is automatically captured
and stored online, in real time and without human error. What is
more, this data is immediately made available to the decision
makers and it provides the user with 100% accurate information.
Williams says that the Micromine solutions offer Namdeb
Microsoft-based product development and make use of nonproprietary
hardware, supplied locally by Storm Logistics, and thereby reduce
cost and turnaround times. Once the project is complete, Micromine
will provide Namdeb with its Micromine Support Solu-tion, which
includes a 24/7 managed service offering, first- and second- level
support, access to onsite qualified technicians and shared
information from similar global clients who have already found
answers to potential challenges. This ensures that the solution is
running at optimum capacity. Micromine brings together global
experience from 13 branches and more than 120 employees worldwide.
This project marks Micromine’s footprint in the African
market and it proves that there are cost efficient mine-control
solutions available.
Williams concludes that most people know what value these types of
systems add to an operation, but many believe that it is too
expensive and difficult to justify. Micromine provides local
support from an internationally-backed company that offers
real-time, cost-effective end-to-end solutions to the African
market. |
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