ABSTRACT

Since the turn of the century, advances in the computing, information technology and telecommunication sectors have empowered geotechnical engineers to collate vast and large amounts of data on a daily basis. More recently, with instability in commodity prices, most mining companies have been reluctant to proportionally increase staffing levels. Effectively and logically storing this wide array of data, and moreover, enabling the validation, analysis and subsequent presentation of the data are paramount in an ever faster paced mining environment where we aim to proactively manage emerging risks and uncertainty.

Geotechnical databases for open pit and underground mining operations have been created on a combination of the acQuire Geoscientific Information Management System and Navstar Geoexplorer. The purpose of these systems is to establish and maintain a central source of data that is easily collected, entered, analyzed, visualized or exported by relevant stakeholders. This paper presents an overview of the system capability and flexibility to meet geotechnical engineers ‘requirements at unique and complex mining operations. Through system upgrades and the training of personnel, the output from geotechnical sections has markedly increased while staffing levels have remained relatively constant over last three years.