MineCycle Designer, MineCycle Survey, and MineCycle Material Handling Address the Mining Industry’s Priorities for Continuous Mine Planning
October 29, 2014 – Bentley Advantage Seminar –Bentley Systems, Incorporated, the leading company dedicated to providing comprehensive software solutions for sustaining infrastructure, recently announced the launch of Bentley’s new MineCycle software applications. These innovative offerings facilitate optioneering to help mining industry participants address some of their most pressing challenges, including the need for a continuous rather than intermittent mine planning cycle.
The MineCycle products are based on industry-proven, pacesetting Bentley software foundations, with MineCycle Designer extending Bentley’s OpenRoads capabilities, MineCycle Survey extending Bentley Map capabilities, and MineCycle Material Handling extending Bentley OpenPlant and OpenRoads capabilities. They are the first Bentley products to be created through syndicated development, which gives industry participants direct input into the software’s definition and design. The MineCycle Designer and MineCycle Survey syndicate development sponsors were Anglo American Platinum Limited, AngloGold Ashanti Limited, Lonmin Plc, and Royal Bafokeng Platinum. The MineCycle Material Handling syndicate development sponsors were Hatch, GHD, and PDC.
MineCycle Designer and MineCycle Survey work together to greatly accelerate mine planning and mine survey iterations. The time consumed by traditional processes (often taking months) prevented consideration of alternatives and also could result in strategies that were out of sync with changing mine and market conditions. MineCycle’s optioneering lets mine owner-operators timely examine multiple operational alternatives, enabling higher-quality decision making leading to enhanced mine performance.
MineCycle Material Handling enables engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms and consultants to accelerate the preliminary design of bulk material handling (BMH) facilities. Through optioneering, MineCycle Material Handling helps EPCs optimize cost, footprint, and other key factors – by empowering them to quickly consider multiple scenarios.
Robert Mankowski, Bentley vice president, simulation product management, said, “We are very excited about our new mining offerings and the powerful optioneering benefits they bring to the mining industry. This ability to quickly assess operational planning and engineering alternatives was one of the ‘musts’ that our syndicate development sponsors identified. Our collaboration with strategic software partner Cyest Technology was also instrumental.”
He continued, “I would particularly like to thank the syndicate sponsors who participated in MineCycle’s development. This innovative approach provides industry leaders with a unique opportunity to mutually influence the definition and design of new products. Thus, the mining industry is now ensured of solutions to high-priority business challenges, and Bentley has been able to mitigate risk and accelerate time to market.”
Gary Lane, managing director, Cyest Technology, said, “The new mine planning solution developed by Bentley Systems and Cyest Technology will radically change the way in which mine planning is done in the industry. By applying new innovative approaches to planning and scheduling, mine management can now test different production planning options to understand the impact on the economics and, thereby, derive a more optimal plan that meets the strategic objective of the business. A more optimal mine design and production schedule leads to more effective execution, which will increase return on capital through increased productivity levels and reduced unit cost. Cyest Technology and Bentley Systems have a strategic vision of developing a solution set that will result in a quantum change in the mining industry.”
What MineCycle Syndicate Development Members Are Saying
“The Bentley and Cyest Technology teams have, over the past two years, led us all in a journey of discovery, which has culminated in a set of programs that will push the boundaries of our current way of doing business into the 21st century. We have collectively given input regarding our various operating requirements in our fields of expertise to Bentley and Cyest over the past two years. This information has driven them to produce a product that not only looks and functions as we intended but has exceeded our expectations. Whether it is mine surveying or mine planning, the solutions that have been created will allow us to function more efficiently and effectively. They further allow users to have one point of contact in terms of software that will give them all the functionality they require to perform their work to their absolute best. It is my belief that the products that have been developed will not only change the way we do work in the particular fields but also allow us to improve it.” – Devlin D. Andersen, Section Surveyor, Anglo American Platinum Limited
“For years the mine technical systems and mineral resource management space has been characterized by islands of bespoke applications that could connect, but not fully integrate with other systems. Every vendor wanted to protect its IP and thus did not cater to the mine owners’ need for configurable, open, and integrated systems. To break this paradigm, Bentley leveraged an industry-first collaboration among four prominent mining companies to define a common set of open solution requirements from which to develop MineCycle Designer and MineCycle Survey. We all eagerly anticipate the successful launch and implementation of these products that are simple to use yet fit for business purpose.” – Ren van Zyl, Senior Manager MES and MRM, Lonmin PLC
“The development of MineCycle Survey and MineCycle Designer is true testimony of what can happen when the mining industry, Bentley, and Cyest Technology partner together, harness their collective knowledge, and develop a solution that is groundbreaking and sets the new standard for mine technical systems development.” – Jurgens Visser, Head Mine Technical Services, Lonmin PLC.
“We in IT Systems and mine service operations are very positive and VERY excited about the possibility of having all our planning and survey data in a format that is simplified, compatible, easily accessible, and readily available for use. Full ProjectWise integration and Bentley Map usage will streamline mine processes in and between the Survey and Planning departments, as all data will be compatible across departmental software. Providing management with a collaborative view of our current versus planned scenarios will be an easy and effortless task by implementing Bentley’s MineCycle Designer and MineCycle Survey. This will simplify reporting and assist management in making constructive and informed operational decisions.” – Bernice van der Merwe, IT Systems Coordinator—Core Business Applications, Royal Bafokeng Platinum
“Bentley is providing the software that will revolutionize the mine survey and planning discipline. Its commitment to the requirements of its clients goes above what is required. We are looking forward to continued collaboration with Bentley to take the South African mining industry to higher technological heights.” – Marthinus Steyn, Senior Mine Planner, AngloGold Ashanti
“We estimate that MineCycle Material Handling will help us to produce FEL-1 and FEL-2 layout designs 20 to 40 percent faster. Specifically, the traditionally onerous process to extract 2D drawings is expected to be significantly reduced. When combined with the layout productivity gains, enabled by the equipment library and other capabilities, our conceptual design process will be much more efficient.” – Hendrik Visser, Global Technical Coordinator – Bulk Material Handling, Hatch
About MineCycle Designer
MineCycle Designer is the only mine design application that provides mine owner-operators with a single dynamic environment for design, evaluation, and scheduling to dramatically shorten planning cycles, support the systematic evaluation of alternative scenarios, and ultimately identify economically optimal mine plans. It functions seamlessly with the scheduling and evaluation capability supplied by Cyest Technology, a leading mining industry solutions provider and Bentley strategic partner.
MineCycle Designer additionally provides:
- rapid feedback on the evaluation and scheduling impacts of design decisions by avoiding time-consuming planning cycles that typically span multiple applications and team members;
- a native open database architecture for unmatched flexibility to share design data across the enterprise and integrate with other operational systems to support ad hoc reporting, analysis, and more.
About MineCycle Survey
MineCycle Survey is an underground and surface mine survey application that furthers the development of optimal mine plans by accelerating the conversion of raw survey measurements into actionable survey intelligence. This enables the optioneering performed with MineCycle Designer to leverage the latest as-mined information and, thus, establish a continuous mine planning cycle.
MineCycle Survey further empowers mine owner-operators to:
- consolidate all survey training and operations in a single software application;
- rapidly compare planned versus actual mine progress;
- leverage native open data formats to share accurate mining progress across the enterprise.
About MineCycle Material Handling
MineCycle Material Handling is a purpose-built bulk material handling (BMH) conceptual design application that lets EPCs and consultants significantly accelerate the preliminary design of BMH facilities. It also provides the opportunity to analyze multiple scenarios through optioneering to propose better-performing and more competitive BMH designs.
MineCycle Material Handling:
- speeds design by replacing generic 2D CAD and spreadsheet workflows with a purpose-built BMH conceptual design environment;
- provides efficient and accurate project estimates, including bills of material and cut and fills, by performing conceptual mechanical layout in the context of the full site, considering terrain, structural, and other requirements;
- facilitates the efficient production of high-quality documentation that clearly communicates design intent, eliminates manual drafting, and produces a ready-to-detail 3D model.
About Optioneering
Optioneering enables the systematic exploration of engineering alternatives, especially for assessing trade-offs from the perspectives of multiple disciplines. This BIM advancement, facilitated by new computational resources, multiplies the value of proven simulation and analytical functionality within information modeling applications. While potentially saving engineering time, optioneering can maximize engineering value through improved asset performance.
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems is the global leader dedicated to providing architects, engineers, geospatial professionals, constructors, and owner-operators with comprehensive software solutions for advancingthe design, construction, and operations of infrastructure. Bentley users leverage information mobility across disciplines and throughout the infrastructure lifecycle to deliver better-performing projects and assets. Bentley solutions encompass MicroStation applications for information modeling, ProjectWise collaboration services to deliver integrated projects, and AssetWise operations services to achieve intelligent infrastructure – complemented by worldwide professional services and comprehensive managed services.
Founded in 1984, Bentley has more than 3,000 colleagues in over 50 countries, more than $600 million in annual revenues, and since 2006 has invested more than $1 billion in research, development, and acquisitions.
Additional information about Bentley is available at www.bentley.com