ABSTRACT
Public Power Corporation is the state single electric utility in Greece. P.P.C. is responsible for the exploration planning and exploitation of lignite deposits. In Ptolemais area there are the largest lignite mines of our country with annual production of 27,000,000 tons. In order to maximize and optimize the lignite production P.P.C. sponsored and helped N.T.U.A. to develop the program system ‘EXPLORE’. The development of the system took almost two years. The software is written in FORTRAN and PASCAL and now is working on a medium size supermicro. EXPLORE is an interactive system of programs that can be used in various studies of Digital Terrain Models. The emphasis in this presentation is given in the use of the system in exploring and planning open pit mines. This system of programs consists mainly of four sections:
The part that studies boreholes, checks input data and for each b/h points out coal thickness, hanging roof, floor, overburden thickness, etc.
The part that forms Digital Terrain Model for each of the above surfaces.
The part that makes some useful mathematic operations in each surface. These operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, derivatives and study of faults in the location you are studying.
The part that presents graphically (graphics, printers and plotters) the above information.
In addition of the presentation of the software we will present its application in exploring and planning of various locations in Ptolemais extend.
