I Newsletter Q4 WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR WELCOME TO OUR LAST NEWSLETTER EDITION FOR 2014!

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1 I Newsletter Q4 WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR WELCOME TO OUR LAST NEWSLETTER EDITION FOR 2014! As we wrap up a busy year with the relaunch of beloved brand Datamine, to releasing our revolutionary Cloud Based platform solution Summit, we would like to thank you the users for your continued support and commitment. With loads of new and exciting product developments and enhancements set for 2015 we can t wait for the new year to begin. In the mean time if you have any feedback or suggestions please be sure to contact us. A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the team here at Datamine! MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF YOUR MINE PAGE 1

2 THE LAUNCH OF SUMMIT SOPP Datamine is pleased to announce that SUMMIT, its cloud-enabled high performance computing and collaboration platform has officially launched. The first module available on the SUMMIT platform is Strategic Open Pit Planning (SOPP). Utilizing scalable high performance computing power on the cloud, SUMMITSOPP can rapidly generate thousands of open pit planning scenarios. Strategic pit optimization studies that traditionally take several months to complete using regular desktop applications can be conducted in less than a day with SUMMIT SOPP. SUMMIT SOPP allows engineers to improve the efficiency of their work and deliver relevant information to management. Carrying out the rigorous analysis required for managing risk and making investment decisions is now possible within a timeframe of days rather than months. As an example, in a recent independent case study, SUMMIT SOPP was able to compute the required analysis 32 times faster than the equivalent desktop software being run on high end computers. In addition to high performance computing capabilities, SUMMIT SOPP has the convenience of simple deployment, as users access the system through a web browser and secure logon for technical work, analysis and reporting. There is no local desktop application to install or licenses to manage, and results can be shared with authorized users at the click of a button. The business value delivered by SUMMIT SOPP is an enhanced understanding of project risks, opportunities, and drivers of value in both brown and green field projects. Companies now have the ability to rapidly prepare plans in advance for a range of potential scenarios based on combinations of external and internal variables including prices, costs and geological uncertainty as well as mining and processing parameters such as slope angles, sinking rates, recoveries and more. SUMMIT for Strategic Open Pit Planning is now officially available. Data Management and Underground Strategic Optimization solutions are scheduled for release in December PAGE 2

3 NEW SOFTWARE FOR IMPROVED OREBODY KNOWLEDGE Datamine has added a significant new capability to its geostatistical analysis options with the release of the Uniform Conditioning Module in Studio 3. This technique provides an enhanced understanding of potential recoverable reserves at local scale, even from sparse drilling data. Uniform Conditioning is the first module to be released from the collaboration between Datamine and Geovariances and uses algorithms identical to those available in Isatis. Uniform Conditioning provides a method for creating a resource model that is representative of the variability of the deposit for a defined selective mining unit (SMU), which if used for mine planning and reserve calculation can increase the confidence in the resulting reports and mine plans. The module produces grade tonnage curves from sample data, as well as alternative grade tonnage curves and representative models for different SMU sizes. The workflow user interface takes the user through the steps of carrying out a study and interpretation of the results is greatly assisted by the integration with Studio s charting and visualisation capabilities. Hennie Coetzee, Datamine s Geology Solution Manager, explained how delighted he was regarding this new development It s a great addition to Datamine s resource evaluation toolset and will help our customers develop more reliable resource reports. I m especially pleased to see that our relationship with Geovariances has resulted in sophisticated Isatis functionality being delivered to our customers by integrating it completely within Studio. PAGE 3

4 MAPINFO PROFESSIONAL DISCOVER ANNOUNCES NEW STUDIO 3 CONNECTIVITY The latest release of MapInfo Professional Discover, the powerful mapping and geographic analysis application, features a powerful new exporter to Datamine s Studio 3. MI Pro Discover s new Studio 3 exporters include robust and interactive validation processes (for Datamine format limitations such as field length and field name length restrictions), as well as bulk table reprojection support. The system now allows users to: By visualising the relationships between data and geography, the MapInfo Professional system makes it fast and easy to create, share and use maps by turning data into information. For more information regarding the latest release of MapInfo and its enhanced connectivity with Studio 3, contact your local support office. Easily export MapInfo Professional data for direct consumption with Studio 3. An intuitive wizard allows the mass re-projection and validation of vector, image and grid files into the Datamine.DM format. Easily export Discover Drillhole Projects for direct consumption by Studio 3 in the Datamine.DM format. PAGE 4

5 MEET EDUARDO LIMA, MINING CONSULTANT FOR DATAMINE BRAZIL Meet Eduardo Lima, Mining Consultant for Datamine in Lima, Brazil. A certified Mining Engineer, Eduardo s experience lies in ultimate pit optimization (economics and environmental analysis) and operational mine development. He possesses advanced skill in creating scripts in Studio 3 related to long term mine planning procedures, project development considering conveyor belts systems, fleet sizing mine equipment, ore reserve and resources evaluation. In 2012, Eduardo joined Datamine Latin America in Brazil. He has since expanded his knowledge and expertise in mine planning through the use of Datamine software tools. and studies with most of our customers, and training people in Datamine software solutions. During the last 9 months, I have been working on SUMMIT platform in some projects and studies using the Strategic Open Pit Planning module (SOPP). SOPP has been seen as a revolutionary mine planning platform by customers, as it presents the possibility to run hundreds or thousands of scenarios in parallel to an integrated solution. Where are you from? I am from Belo Horizonte, the third biggest Brazilian city and the capital of Minas Gerais state. Minas Gerais is located in the Southeast region of Brazil, with an important history related to Brazilian mining and where the Brazilian Datamine office is located. What is your education and work history? I am a qualified Mining Engineer and graduate from UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais). Before I commenced work with Datamine, I worked for Vale for 2 years where I was part of the Iron Ore Reserves Department team which is responsible for the management of all Vale s Iron Ore Mines and Projects in Brazil. Describe your current role with Datamine During these past two and a half years working for Datamine, I have been developing projects PAGE 5

6 CONTINUED... MEET EDUARDO LIMA, MINING CONSULTANT FOR DATAMINE BRAZIL Datamine is playing an important role in the mining industry in launching a new software platform that allows our clients to carry out studies which were unfeasible using technology currently available on the market. Datamine Brazil, has been a pioneer for the first paid services using this new technology and I am proud to be part of this success contributing directly to the development of this innovative solution. What attracted you to the role? The Iron Ore Reserves Department in Vale is one of the main customers of Datamine in Brazil, and during my time with Vale, I had the opportunity to work with Datamine software. I was also trained in developing projects with some consultants who I worked for during that time. The prospect of working for a global company specialising in software, training and consulting that provided the opportunity to work with different customers. Carrying out projects with commodities appealed to me greatly. outcomes, and these first results are already part of a paper which I co-authored with Damian Gregory (Open Pit Planning Solution Manager) and Andy Lapworth (Technical Director). We presented the paper at SMP2014 in Perth, Australia. What does a typical day as a Mining Engineer Consultant at Datamine entail? A typical day as a Mining Engineering Consultant involves working in a collaborative way both with customers and colleagues. The technical discussions are part of our routine and there is no better way to improve the quality of the services we are providing than hearing suggestions and understanding the real necessities of our customers. Datamine s Consulting Team provides a range of services from outsourced resource estimation and mine design services through to mining studies, technology implementations and business improvement projects, with over 100 geologists and mining engineers ranging from 5 to 35 years experience. What has been your best moment as a Datamine employee so far? I have had some great moments throughout my time working for Datamine, but I consider the present developments the best. When I heard about SUMMIT last year and what we could do using this kind of technology, I knew it would be considered an important innovation to the mining industry. The studies that I have been developing in Brazil are generating some very good PAGE 6

7 SOT CLIENT CASE STUDY: YAMANA GOLD JACOBINA MINE SITE The Challenge Yamana Gold was preparing to commence a life-of-mine study that focused on seven key areas of their Jacobina mine site, located north-east of Brazil. The fundamental objective of this study was to ensure that the desired production levels from these mining areas could be achieved, to feed the increasing plant capacity that had been forecasted. Yamana s team of mining engineers encountered a number of areas which had the potential to impact on the project NPV. These had to be identified and addressed so that strategic steps could be taken to overcome them. In order to achieve the optimal strategy for the project, Yamana Gold s challenge was to ensure that all project areas were scheduled in combination; this way start-up dates and priorities between areas could be established so that all targets could be covered. using Datamine s Scheduling Optimization Tool (SOT). Using new and advanced genetic algorithm techniques, SOT was not only capable of achieving the desired production targets, it could also tell mining engineers and managers the impact of each adopted strategy in the project s NPV. Datamine s team of specialists assisted in the design, evaluation and mining sequences within the detailed mine planning system, Studio 5D Planner. All seven mining areas were then combined into a single project in Enhanced Production Scheduler (EPS), to create a single mine planning environment. Within EPS, all formulae and reports were set up in order to allow the team to quickly extract all of the KPIs needed to evaluate each scheduling scenario. The Solution The solution needed to be: Effective: Able to cater for the complexities of the project On Target: Able to achieve the desired production levels Powerful: Able to rapidly generate multiple scheduling options To cater for the complexity of the study, Yamana Gold s final schedule was calculated PAGE 7

8 CONTINUED... SOT CLIENT CASE STUDY: YAMANA GOLD JACOBINA MINE SITE The EPS project encompassing the 7 areas was transferred into SOT for the creation of scheduling options. Sensitivity analysis studies were then carried out to produce each scheduling configuration. Finally, thousands of scenarios were created, and the top-ten sequences of each scheduling configuration were kept for further analysis, allowing the engineers to obtain the final mine plan. Datamine and Yamana Gold s teams of specialists adopted different start dates for each mining area, and in some occasions, even excluded areas from the project to successfully understand the impacts of these options on the NPV. The Outcome By using the new genetic algorithm technology in SOT to create life-of-mine plans, Yamana Gold not only achieved optimal results, they also significantly improved their processes. The rapid and effective results produced by SOT meant that Yamana Gold obtained much more than what was initially expected. The short time required to perform sensitivity analysis allowed the team to: Generate multiple scheduling options; Understand production profiles by combining and removing mining areas; Check the impact of changes in commodity prices and mining and processing costs thus comparing NPV between scenarios; Verify and change corporate strategies. Click here to access a recording of the latest SOT webinar. To find out how SOT can improve your processes, contact your regional Datamine office. PAGE 8

9 TIME SAVER TIP: USING SHEET TEMPLATES FOR RAPID REPORTING Sheet templates are an efficient way of introducing standard content to your plot or log views. They can be used to minimize the work required in generating a framework presentation project which can be re-used in the future. Applicable to both Plot and Log views, templates are stored in a proprietary format (.dmtpl) which can be read in Studio 3, Downhole Explorer or Present applications. The amount of information stored in a plot template is entirely up to you; a very simple template may contain information relating to the overall page size and orientation only whereas a more detailed version could include specific layouts for a series of projections, data views such as tables and legends, header and footer formats for title bars and other mapped data. Saving a Sheet Template Creating a new sheet template is simple; you create the layout and data links that are required (or load an existing sheet you wish to turn into a template) and then save the information in.dmtpl format using the File Save as Sheet Template... option from the dropdown menu system. Loading a Sheet Template Templates are imported by inserting them into an existing data presentation project: In the Plots or Logs window, select Insert Sheet From Template... Using the file browser, locate the template (.dmtpl) file and Open it. The Import Sheet Template dialog is shown. 4. Specify any data mappings that may be required and click OK to import the template. Data mapping is an important aspect of plot templates; although optional (you can use templates to store plot layout information only if you wish), the ability to map data in memory to a hook stored in a template makes generation of standard plots and logs really easy. Worked Example using Data Mapping In this example, a block model file has been loaded into memory. The model is displayed in two projections on a single plot sheet; the right hand projection shows a top-down view of the model cells at a scale of 1:1000, and the left hand projection shows a North-South section through the orebody: PAGE 9

10 CONTINUED... TIME SAVER TIP: USING SHEET TEMPLATES FOR RAPID REPORTING Note that other plot items have been added; a title box, legend, image and table view are also shown. 1. From the Plots window, the sheet is saved as a template using File Save as Sheet Template and saving the template file to the disk or network. 2. Next, a new project is loaded (saving the previous one) and a different block model loaded into memory. By inserting the previous template (Insert Sheet From Template...) and selecting the previously-saved.dmtpl file. 3. The template is loaded and the Insert Sheet Template dialog is displayed. The initial preview window is empty as the template cannot find the original block model file that was used to create the template. 4. For this example, you are going to map the new block model to the original one; this is achieved by ensuring the Use Data check box is active, and then selecting the original model file on the left as referenced by the template. Once selected, a list of all data types in memory that match the type of the one selected (in this case, a block model) is shown in the column to the right. e.g.: PAGE 10

11 CONTINUED... TIME SAVER TIP: USING SHEET TEMPLATES FOR RAPID REPORTING Select the object on the right that you wish to display using the same settings as the original. This object is now mapped to the template. Once an object is mapped, and providing the Show Preview check box is selected, a thumbnail of the mapped data object is shown in the preview pane, e.g.: Compare this to the image above - note how the orientations of the model are the same in both projections. TIP: Template objects do not have to be Datamine binary (.dm) files; they can, in fact, be any file in memory that has been imported. For example, if a text file (.txt) was inserted into a plot at the time a template was created, this reference could be mapped to any text file in memory when subsequently imported, and the same principle applies to any data format supported by Studio s extensive Data Source Drivers functions. It is also possible to map individual data fields between templates and loaded data objects consult your online Help file for more information on this powerful facility. This process, and everything described in this Timesaver can also be automated using any COM-aware scripting language. PAGE 11