Graphic Mining Solutions International (GMSI), a business unit of GijimaAst, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have strengthened their working relationship through a formal agreement to combine their respective technologies and expertise for the MinSim 2000 Software.
The MinSim Software was developed by the CSIR for modelling the stress and strain distributions created in a rock mass in response to mining excavations in a hard rock, flat tabular mining environment.
Stress strain modelling in South Africa began some 30 years ago, as a response to the unique requirements in the South African tabular gold bearing reefs. Its first application used an electrolytic tank to simulate mined out areas and arrive at stress and strain changes around underground excavations.
This led to the development of the electrical resistance analogue and ultimately the MinSim software. The relative insignificance of the reef plane thickness, compared with depth, allowed designers to simplify the simulation of the reef, reducing the computing power required to a minimum enabling quick analyses on the computers of yesteryear.
The greater power and speed of current computers have allowed for the upgrades carried out by the CSIR to date. MinSim C was upgraded to MinSim D, where the dip/inclination of the reef was included; onto MinSim W, for Windows; and the latest is MinSim 2000, the version currently marketed.
The CSIR has agreed to transfer ownership of the intellectual property of MinSim 2000 to GMSI. This will enable GMSI to:
* Provide current clients with the necessary ongoing support of the MinSim 2000 software system;
* Accept responsibility for the ongoing development and sustainable commercialisation of MinSim 2000; and
* Allow GMSI, in conjunction with the CSIR, to undertake further development as required by industry.
"A key driver for the CSIR is to form strong links with industry leaders," explains Marianne Maccelari of the CSIR. "We see GMSI as a strong and reliable partner for future endeavours with their in-depth knowledge of the mining industry and leading mining toolsets which complement MinSim 2000," she adds.
"Due to our close working relationship with the mining industry, we will be able to assist the CSIR with further research and development for MinSim, as we will see market needs first hand," says Dolf Prinsloo, MD of GMSI.
The MinSim 2000 software has been licensed to various mining companies and consultancies and GMSI plans to broaden the user base through streamlined data flows between rock engineering analysis and the mine design and scheduling functionality of GMSI`s suite of mining software, ie CADSMine/MinSim interface.
According to GMSI`s George Brinch, the upgrading and integrating of MinSim 2000 into a totally new package is under way. The new version will allow the user to seamlessly draw in and assess the graphically-represented mined out areas and future planning. A beta version will be available for testing by April 2006. This work includes revision of the front end of the programme and when complete will be followed by upgrading of the reporting system. The result will be an improved user-friendly package for simulating the extraction of tabular ore bodies at depth with the benefits of an optimum reporting system.
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