Micromine, the leading provider of software solutions and services to the international mining sector, is pleased to announce the release of Micromine 2014, the latest version of the company’s industry leading exploration and mine design solution.
Micromine 2014 was unveiled on 19 May, 2014, to clients and industry at a launch event held in Perth, Western Australia, at the QV1 Function Centre. The Perth launch will be followed by events in Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia, and international launches throughout the company’s global offices.
Micromine 2014 is the fifteenth version of the application which allows users to capture, manage and interpret critical data, and is relevant to all stages of the mineral extraction process.
Micromine provides explorers with an in-depth understanding of their project so prospective regions can be targeted more effectively, increasing the chance of a project’s success. Miners are provided easy-to-use modelling, estimation and design tools to simplify day-to-day production tasks.
Commenting on the release, Micromine MD, Wally Borovac, says, “The Micromine Product Management and Development Teams have worked tirelessly to release Micromine 2014 only a year after the previous version, Micromine 2013, and to ensure that the application and its developments exceed client expectations”.
“Over 310 new and enhanced features specific to both exploration and mining have been introduced within Micromine 2014 to satisfy all users, from GIS specialists and geologists through to mine engineers. Micromine 2014 also continues the company’s commitment to producing easy-to-use software solutions that are intuitive and allow users to enhance productivities and cost efficiencies.”
“By re-investing a significant percentage of annual revenue into the company’s Research and Development (R&D) Programme, Micromine ensures its clients benefit from the latest technological advances with frequent, timely releases and updates that reflect their needs”.
“In addition to the company’s on-going R&D Programme, which has been supplemented by the largest ever grant awarded to a mining software company by the Australian Government, the Micromine Product Management Team manages an incredibly robust Beta Testing Programme.”
“Based on the feedback of our Beta Testers and the market’s initial reception to this latest product version, I am confident of Micromine 2014’s success,” Borovac concludes.
CSA Global’s principal resource geologist and Micromine 2014 beta tester, Dmitry Pertel, adds “Micromine consistently releases new software versions which are intuitive, easy-to-learn, and incorporate the most innovative technology. I am very pleased with Micromine 2014 and I believe that all users will benefit from the application’s new and enhanced features”.
“From a resource estimation perspective, Micromine 2014’s most significant user benefits are achieved through enhanced statistical and geo-statistical tools. The tools are now far more interactive and most importantly, they dramatically speed up and simplify the process of creating variograms.
“Another highlight is that Micromine now supports rotated block models in the pit optimisation environment. I believe this functionality is unique to Micromine 2014. I’m not aware of any other mining software solution that offers this advanced functionality.”
Some of the new and enhanced features within Micromine 2014 include:
* Graphing and statistics – the most significant enhancement within Micromine 2014 is the major update of statistical functions and the inclusion of new graphing functionality, providing improved visuals and increased user interactivity. New functionality, including box-and-whisker plots and a new semi variogram map, ensure users can easily produce what they need with minimal effort, saving a considerable amount of time.
Although all users will benefit from improved workflows, they are most pertinent to exploration and resource geologists who use statistics on a daily basis. Micromine 2014’s stereonet display has also undergone a re-write, and is now more visual and advanced. Through new options it is now easy to summarise structural orientations.
* 64-bit application – to ensure the solution adheres to latest technology trends, Micromine 2014 has been converted to a full 64-bit application. This builds on the hybrid 32/64-bit framework of the application’s last few releases, and will allow clients to use all available memory on their computers and work with more data than ever before. Many underlying systems such as wireframes and drill hole databases have also been modified as part of this update.
* Design enhancements – Micromine 2014 offers enhanced pit design tools, new road and switchback options, and new surface road design tools. Other CAD enhancements include new snap modes which allow users to easily create a string that follows a surface wireframe, and a dynamic input mode that allows specific numbers (such as a gradient or distance) to be entered in the middle of a graphical editing session.
* Vizex and plotting enhancements – Micromine 2014 features new block model display options, including interactive block visibility. Users can now display or hide blocks in the model by dragging sliders on a histogram of data values. These data values can be coloured using the same colour set as Vizex, making it easy to relate visible blocks with the slider positions.
Additionally, new drill hole aligned hatches provide more visually appealing results by aligning patterns to the drill hole traces. The application’s Plot Editor functionality has been further enhanced, a process which was initiated a few releases back. Users are offered a more streamlined use of Plot Editor through the ability to easily and quickly edit properties of plot features with a single click, saving time.