December 2015
|
World Coal
|
43
EXPLORATION
ADVANCING
COAL
C
okal Ltd is an ASX-listed
coal company, with
interests in coal
exploration in
Kalimantan, Indonesia and Tanzania.
Its premier project in Indonesia, Bumi
Barito Mineral (BBM), covers
19 920 ha. and straddles the Barito
River. Proving up coal resources to the
Australian Joint Ore Reserves
Committee (JORC) Code standard for
early production is the company’s
priority. Initially, it saw 77 million t
total resource comprising 70 million t
inferred resources and 7 million t
indicated resources with 70%
metallurgical coal and 30% PCI coal.
Recently, this was upgraded to
261 million t using Dassault Systèmes‘
GEOVIAMinex™ – comprising
10.5 million t of measured,
13.5 million t of indicated and
237 million t of inferred resources.
The right solution for the
job
Designed specifically for stratified
deposits, the mining software allowed
Cokal to upgrade its resource,
increasing value, while reducing
exploration costs.
Since the beginning of exploration
at BBM, Minex has been paramount to
the company’s success. Pat Hanna,
Executive Director, and Chirs Turvey,
Exploration and Resource Manager,
Principal Geologist, are both long-time
users of the software, having used the
software successfully on previous
projects. When it was time to start
exploring the deposits at the
greenfield sites in Indonesia, both
Hanna and Turvey went straight to
Minex for their geological needs. “I
always recommend Minex for
geological work,” said Hanna. “I
would never enter into a project
without a solution like Minex – we
put it in place and start using it right
from day one.”
Cokal began the exploration
process through its database by
looking at the borehole geophysics to
understand the geology and initiate
the seam correlations. One of the
challenges with greenfield projects is
the lack of drilling and mapping
information; however, the mining
software allowed Cokal to look at the
raw data and formulate a picture of
the coal geology. Through the 2D and
3D views, geologists were able to
understand the geology, which
enabled them to continue the
exploration and define the coal
resources.
Comprehensive drilling
database
The software increased the company’s
productivity by identifying where to
drill, in turn saving valuable time and
money. Incorporating the information
from the initial outcrops, geologists
create predictive holes in appropriate
patterns, ultimately forming a drilling
budget that provides drillers with the
anticipated drill hole intersections.
“Minex is a robust, integrated
package that gives you more precise
results,” commented Turvey. “It helps
to give you the confidence you need in
your data to compile a reliable
geological model.” By identifying
where and how deep to drill, Minex
avoids costly and time-consuming
wildcat drilling. Once geologists
receive the borehole information, they
can update their data and regenerate
the geological model to confirm the
intersection location and determine
the quality of the coal. Minex can be
used to efficiently predict and gauge
borehole results in order to determine
the next steps for drilling.
Accurate data verification
and seam interpolation
Coal geologists use Minex to validate
the accuracy of the boreholes and
other data before the modelling
commences. They run the data
through a series of validation checks
to quickly identify any flawed data,
such as the minimum and maximum
thickness, roof, floor or ash that would
result in any problematic anomalies.
By validating the data, it saves the
Andrew Pyne, Dassault Systèmes GEOVIA, Canada,
details how using an
accurate tool saved a coal company AUS$200 000 and increased staff confidence to
progress from exploration to opencast coal mining.
