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
For additional information about the MineCycle applications, click here.
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.
For
additional information about MineCycle Designer, click here.
To download a high-resolution
MineCycle Designer image,
click here.
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.
For
additional information about MineCycle
Survey, click here.
To download a high-resolution MineCycle
Survey image, click here.
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.
For
additional information about MineCycle
Material Handling, click here.
To download a high-resolution MineCycle
Material Handling image, click here.
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 advancing the 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 and
in Bentley’s annual report. For Bentley
news as it happens, subscribe to an RSS feed of
Bentley press releases and news alerts. Visit The Year in Infrastructure 2014 Conference
for highlights of Bentley’s premier thought-leadership event. To view a searchable collection of innovative
infrastructure projects from the annual Be
Inspired Awards, access Bentley’s Infrastructure Yearbooks. To access a professional networking site that enables
members of the infrastructure community to connect, communicate, and learn from
each other, visit Be Communities.
To
download the Bentley Infrastructure 500
Top Owners ranking, a unique global compendium
of the top public- and private-sector owners of infrastructure based on the
value of their cumulative infrastructure investments, visit www.bentley.com/500.
