Traditional manual paper based management processes have meant that most mining companies have major problems keeping company data assets (3D models, mining schedules etc) secure, current and accessible.  This can result in costly mistakes if engineers/geologists use outdated versions of geological models when planning mining operations.

With the global resources boom, mining companies are dealing with critical data that is constantly changing.  Miners need to ensure that the correct version of mission critical information is available to the correct people in a timely manner irrespective of their location.

Mining consulting and technology specialist, Runge in conjunction with strategic business and technology partners, SAP and ESRI developed a solution that gives miners the tools they need to maximize core technology investments.

Mining Dynamics is an integrated enterprise framework that allows mining managers and decision makers to visually interrogate and query spatial data from multiple sources, independent of data format. It provides the first ever gateway that links the mining technical world to the rest of the mining enterprise.

With the ability to template and share a process solution across the business, Mining Dynamics ensures that the initial investment has an instant economy of scale. To a miner, this ensures the best return on investment (ROI) for the operation by optimizing operating costs.

Glen Kuntz, manager, Mining Dynamics, Runge, said "Runge designed Mining Dynamics to enable mining operations to meet complex global compliance and legislative requirements. It provides the mining industry with a tool for proactive issues management by bridging the gap between mining operations and head office."

With the increasing need for global organizations to be able to manage workflow and spatially related data across multiple geographic locations, the web-based flexibility of Mining Dynamics has been able to provide Runge's clients with a range of demonstrated benefits.

Mining Dynamics lets users manage and control all types of spatial data across the entire mine production chain, including geology, modelling, and design to enable scheduling and reconciliation. 

Mining Dynamics is also vendor independent and works with a mining company's existing systems avoiding the need for costly legacy system replacements. It is designed to provide standardization of data across the geological and engineering processes.

The level of data uniformity it provides between the mine site and "back office" allows the organization to respond rapidly to changing operational environments.

For example, if a mine operators has deployed Vulcan at one site, Datamine at another, and Gemcom or Surpac at yet another, with each system having its own proprietary data formats, it could become extremely difficult to pass information between sites for assessment of mining activities and plans.  Mining Dynamics solves this problem by actively storing data coupled with metadata in an open standard. format, coupled with the ability to convert data to binary formats during data retrieval if necessary.

Furthermore, because all the interaction and visualisation is done via a website (including 3D) a manager can simply browse to the data of interest and query, rotate, zoom, and measure without relying on expensive expert systems.