Q and A with Rod Hawkes, Director Services, Australia

Delivering integration services across multiple sites helps Rio Tinto to drive operational efficiency. 

Q: Explain the project management services Maptek offers and their benefits?

Q: How important is it to have accuracy and consistency across mine sites in today's economic climate?

Hawkes: Over the last few years there has been a steadily growing trend toward having ‘one version of the truth’, that represents information from all aspects of mining, plant and transport and is accurate information.

This then allows all departments involved in a mine to confidently make management decisions and work together to improve the mine results. This is more important now, to allow mines to get the best return on their large investments, and potentially allowing more finely grained decisions on when and if to scale individual operations.

Q: How is this achieved?

Hawkes: The harsh, often remote and project nature of mining operations has made consolidation of data more difficult. Recent technologies have started to make it possible. Just think of GPS satellites opening up the world, 3G mobile networks enabling internet connection, wireless points providing data coverage for pits and underground sites. PCs and even ruggedised tablets are now standard in most mine-related work places. These make it possible to gather, move and share information around sites.

This is where Maptek comes in. We connect all the different information systems that are brought into or set up on sites and make the information ‘talk’ back and forth. It requires working steadily through all the possible connections and getting each to work.

To make this easier, Maptek also helps clients to standardise on systems for particular jobs. For example, RTIO has a portfolio of systems and each site uses a copy for their own work. When a new site comes online, it is just a matter of rolling out these systems to new sites.

Q: Explain in more detail Maptek's relationship with Rio Tinto?

Hawkes: Maptek has been working closely with RTIO for over 10 years. This has taken us through some tough times and we have always managed to find a good outcome for all concerned by being quite open about our objectives and any issues. RTIO is facing some challenges right now and, as always, Maptek is working with the people there to adjust our services to suit the current situation, while leaving RTIO in a position to keep operating well and growing into the future.

Q: How have Rio Tinto sites responded to the services provided by Maptek?

Hawkes: RTIO has a sophisticated help desk that handles all calls, for our work as well as for other teams. Our focus on what the business and individuals need means that our team rates very highly in the help desk surveys.

Q: Are the applications being installed on other sites?

Hawkes: The systems are managed so that they can be shared across RTIO sites. We have also worked with RTIO on taking some to wider markets, but are mindful of the intellectual property that RTIO may have built into the systems.

Of course, the experience and skill in managing and integrating these is used for other clients.

Q: What does the future hold for Maptek?

Hawkes: There are significant opportunities available to mining companies through the effective and efficient availability of mining data – be it design data, production data or geological data. The value locked in this data should not be restrained by the need for multiple system interactions which can be barriers to transfer of the required information to each task in the mining value chain.

Maptek is working to deliver systems applicable across the mine design and execution value chain, all of which have access to the data available and are designed to leverage the availability of that data to the maximum extent. An inability to do this is a significant detriment to the large number of technical vendors at each stage of the value chain.