Whitehaven Coal ups its exploration capability with Geobank

Whitehaven Coal produced 16Mt of coal in 2018, contributing to record Australian coal export results. In February 2019, the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed coal was the country’s highest earning export commodity for 2018, accounting for $66 billion in export revenue.

Senior Geobank Data Management Specialist Ibo Mango said Geobank provided an important tool for coal miners to hone, manage and direct their exploration and production processes.

“Geobank helps companies of all sizes to better record, access, review, integrate and utilise their essential geological data,” Mango said.

“Problems with inaccurate data are often invisible. Loss of data, poor accessibility or quality control issues can cost millions of dollars and cause inaccurate decision making, especially in a high-yield sector like coal.”

As a strong player in the Australian coal mining industry and with a major expansion project underway, Whitehaven Coal procured Geobank to provide a robust, flexible data management solution. Geobank has adapted to suit Whitehaven’s specific work flow requirements, including data collection, validation and depth adjustment, browsing and advanced reporting needs.

“Geobank’s fully customizable solution provided Whitehaven with extended functionality designed specifically for their exploration and mining needs.  Geobank provides specialised utilities for displaying and managing drillhole data.”

Geobank also integrates the Australian CoalLog Standard, which was introduced in 2012.

Before CoalLog, around 30 different data formats and over 100 different data code translation tables were used in the capture of geological and geotechnical data, which led to major inefficiencies in the collection, transfer, and analysis of coal borehole data.

Members of MICROMINE’s Geobank team played a pivotal role in the development of CoalLog and have ensured its integration into Geobank’s suite of products.