Portugal’s mining strategy may favour copper over lithium
Portugal already has the largest copper mine in the European Union, operated by Lundin Mining.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (January 29, 2013) – Mining software experts RungePincockMinarco (RPM) announced the launch of the industry’s only software package focused exclusively on underground coal at this year’s Mining Indaba in Cape Town. (*)
The software, called Underground Coal XPAC Solution, is designed to accelerate the delivery of practical mine plans and was purpose built to focus on the planning intricacies of underground coal mines, something other generic mine planning solutions on the market do not take into account. Its single focus on underground coal means more accurate, practical and relevant results.
Underground Coal borrows the industry’s leading scheduling engine and database from the XPAC stable, meaning a perfect match of raw power and ultimate flexibility to adapt to the unique circumstances of each mine. Its streamlined interface guides users with speed and precision through the business-critical stages of mine planning in a standardised and consistent manner.
Underground Coal’s upshots are that users will quickly and easily explore many scenarios while maintaining consistent and practical results. This leads to increased confidence, informed decision making and decreased risk, each adding extra value to the deposit.
Mike Evans, RPM’s Regional General Manager – EMEA said, “Our clients face risks from the traditionally complex mine planning solutions available until now, which means reliance on retaining niche technical skills.”
“With a skills shortage continuing to affect the industry, we’ve addressed these concerns by launching Underground Coal with in-built mining intelligence that removes the need to have these niche skills, opening up mine planning to a wider audience.
“This in-built intelligence was developed from our over four decades of industry expertise. We’re proud to have the world’s largest installation base in underground coal mines globally.”
Mr Evans went on to say, “With Underground Coal, we’ve eliminated the need to learn scripting, meaning less time getting the hang of the software and more time planning the mine. Not only is it easy to become proficient, mastering Underground Coal is extremely high speed.”
“By implementing Underground Coal, we remove the risk of loss of human capital from our clients’ business.”
Underground Coal will be officially launched and available for hands-on demonstration at RPM’s booth (3213) at Mining Indaba, held in Cape Town from February 4-7.
“We’re excited to be launching the only software product in the world exclusively for underground coal at Africa’s largest mining conference given how incredibly relevant Underground Coal will be to our local clients,” concluded Mr Evans.
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* In response to this statement, MINING.com received the following comment from Gemcom Software:
This [being the world’s only software package exclusively for underground coal] is not an entirely factual statement. For over 25 years, Gemcom Minex™ has been the only integrated, end-to-end geology and mine planning solution designed specifically for coal. On December 13, 2011 Minex version 6.1.1 was released which built on existing underground capabilities to offer a complete underground coal scheduling and design solution. Now known as Underground Engineering, this module effectively positioned Minex as a software package designed exclusively for coal, both for underground and open pit operations.
