Q: What problem does Datamine solve for mining companies?

JG: It all depends on the company’s situation. The scope of problems that Datamine can solve is quite wide, from the exploration phase to operations. Datamine covers mining processes for all mining commodities. Our main areas are exploration, geological modeling, mine planning, both in open pit and underground mines, metallurgical balancing operations, logistics and sales and laboratory management, among others.

PM: It is important to emphasize that there are companies to which we offer our software only for a specific area and there are others where we cover almost all the company’s operations. Having said that, we solve many problems and not just a single one.

Q: What is a common problem in the operational stage of a mine that Datamine solves?

JG: With the ore logistics and monitoring system we can determine, for example, the origin of a mixture that is feeding the plant and that may have impurities. This problem occurs especially when there are several mines contributing to the same plant. To prevent this, we can track that mineral and its quality throughout the entire process. In blasting operations, to give another example, we provide the statistical analysis of the blasting result.

In the last two years, the most popular solutions for mining companies relate to inventory tracking and metallurgical accounting. Inside a processing plant, a mineral enters and concentrate comes out and mining companies measure the state of those minerals entering and exiting the plant; however, they do not have full traceability of what happened in the process. Usually, they do a simple addition and subtraction calculation: the mineral that came out minus the mineral that entered. But that will not deliver an appropriate result because the measurements are inaccurate, given the bias in the system.

Instead, we convert the stored measurement data into data that truly represents what happened. To that end, we use statistical balance, mass and metallurgical balance methods. Often, there is a combination of minerals found in a single mineral. There may be copper, gold and silver in the same ore. Datamine examines reports on each of these metals to provide data that better represents, within a certain statistical variability, what happened in the transformation process.

Q: Why is it important for a mining company to have accuracy in this type of data?

JG: All this information is important because it is what a mining company publishes as production data and is reflected in its annual results in terms of costs or profitability of the process. The data that Datamine provides is associated with the veracity of the data our clients publish. Therefore, the data has to come from an auditable process. That is provided by Datamine’s systems, such as the Production Accounting software. This is even more important today given that accounting and reporting standards and regulations have globally become more strict and demanding than in the past.

It is also important to know what happens with the “black box” inside the plant because production figures constitute the final reports that the mine sends to investors, and therefore they need to be precise and reliable. These are technologies that we can interact with immediately, and which display data in real time. But to achieve this, a database is required.

Companies in Latin America have traditionally built databases and solutions for their in- house use. This solution is unsustainable because only a few people have the requisite knowledge. Additionally, this route poses a problem of simple data exchange throughout the company to deliver integrated and wide-view data insights.

Q: How can a mining company solve its issues in terms of data collection?

JG: Digitalization, and the use of digital twins, can help solve this issue. Digitalization integrates separate data strands to help identify themes from historical trends and offers real-time sensor data to drive short interval control in execution of plans, and to derive future insights with AI tools to predict outcomes across a mine’s supply chain, among other benefits.

But data must be converted into information before it can result in added value. Digital twins, which can map the real landscape of a mining company’s inventory and tracking processes, provide this conversion. Financial and accounting processes, among many others, can be automated with clarity and are fully auditable.

Digital twins can also be put to use in the mine itself, especially in the exploration stage. Datamine’s DataBlast software offers informational insights on the blast layout and design of a mine. This can be integrated with Drill Navigational Systems and offers real-time field measurement, among other features. The company’s WipFrag software package, meanwhile, processes fragmentation analysis, can capture information from drones and offers on-stream analysis of truck tips and conveyors.

Q: How has mining companies adapting to this type of technology?

PM: The mining industry around the world has been interested in this type of technology for many years. Datamine’s product was initially developed almost 40 years ago. In Mexico, there is a renewed interest in implementing these systems or upgrading systems that are probably not operating well. These technological solutions have been around for a long time, but many mining companies have not yet incorporated them. Mining has been very slow to incorporate these types of technologies.

This slow adoption of technology is attributed to the regulatory processes of the companies and to the little investment that there has been in recent years due to uncertainty in the mining industry.

Q: How are your services different from the competition in the mining industry?

JG: The main difference is the coverage we offer during all processes related to the production line of a mining operation. We have competitors in the industry but there is no company like Datamine that has such a diversity of software that addresses a mining company’s complete process.

PM: Our coverage is very broad. Where there is mining there is Datamine. Our technical support is also different from the competition because we provide local support in Spanish and in any language where we are present. This makes a huge difference in mining.

Datamine offers software solutions for a wide range of mine operations. From terrain mapping to scheduling production activities and logistics related to mineral transport. Its 40 software products can be applied in all mining stages.