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RPMGlobal to acquire MineOptima

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World Coal,


RPMGlobal has entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of MineOptima, a leading global private company with more than 20 years’ experience developing software applications that design the optimal equipment access layouts for underground mines.

MineOptima arose out of the research of the Network Optimisation Group at the University of Melbourne over a twenty year period. The team developed theory and algorithms to design least cost access networks for underground mines satisfying navigability constraints. The research was sponsored by a number of mining companies, including Newmont, Rand Mining and Tribune Resources, as well as the Australian Research Council. A considerable number of PhD projects were also completed.

RPM’s CEO and Managing Director Richard Mathews commented: “We are very pleased to have concluded negotiations to acquire MineOptima.  This strategic acquisition will fast-track RPM’s underground mining software solutions by providing RPM with access to the industry leading tools specifically designed to optimise access layouts for underground mines delivering our customers the opportunity to achieve greater levels of productivity.”

“The MineOptima products minimise development and haulage costs and deliver users a 3D rendering of an optimal decline network for their underground mine taking into account operational constraints such as decline gradient, turning circle radius, and straight sections of the declines near junctions and determines optimal locations for breakouts of subsidiary declines in the network, given the network topology,” Matthews continued.

MineOptima are the exclusive developers and intellectual property owners of the Decline Optimisation Tool (DOT), Planar Underground Network Optimiser (PUNO), Large-scale Underground Network Optimiser (LUNO), Gas Gathering Network Optimiser (GGNO) and Underground Mine Optimal Infrastructure Designer (UMOID) software solutions. Mathews added: “DOT can automatically select the best option for level access or the best choice of breakout points where there are alternatives. DOT returns centreline strings of the optimal declines, and a summary report showing the selected points, and the lengths, gradients, development and haulage costs, for each link in the optimal network. DOT includes a tool that allows the user to adjust any design generated by the program, by fixing selected breakouts and freeing others, and then rerunning the optimisation.”

“We are looking forward to harnessing the underlying power behind these unique software tools and building them into our underground mining solutions, including our underground metals solution which was officially launched this week.  When combined with RPM’s Enterprise Planning Platform, we are looking to deliver our mining customers with a truly integrated solution delivering the single source of truth across their entire underground mining operations through integration. It is this connected view of operations that forms the Digital Mine.”

MineOptima’s Managing Director Professor Hyam Rubinstein said: “We are delighted that our algorithms and software will be available to the mining industry through RPM’s underground mining solutions. This is a wonderful way for our research to be of maximum benefit to mining companies.”

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/mining/04082017/rpmglobal-to-acquire-mineoptima/

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