University partnerships

Train the trainers

Maptek hosted educators from across North America’s top colleges and technical universities for the annual Train the Trainers Workshop in Denver during January.

The workshop provides a platform for educators to enhance skills and curricula while networking with others from the same field. This year eight professors and teaching assistants attended in person and five joined remotely.

The workshop began with an overview of the Maptek University Program, partnership opportunities and extra benefits, such as educational licences, training datasets and reference material. The five-day workshop covered Maptek Vulcan basics, block modelling, implicit modelling, open pit and underground design, pit optimisation, geostatistics and scheduling tools.

The train the trainers workshop is just one example of activities which strengthen and grow unique mining partnerships with universities around the world.

The sessions exposed participants to Maptek software applications and resources to easily integrate them into lecture and laboratory sessions. The Online Training platform was also showcased.

Throughout the workshop educators provided feedback on various tools and how they will be used. They also suggested ways to make the Maptek University Program more sustainable and help solve their challenges.

NExUS intensive

The second National Exploration Uncover School (NExUS) was attended by 33 future leaders of the minerals industry at the end of 2017. Funded by the Minerals Council of Australia and conducted by The University of Adelaide, the course included an introduction to geological modelling and resource-reserve estimation using Maptek Vulcan.

The three-week intensive summer school exposes recent graduates, third year and honours students to the opportunities and challenges facing mineral exploration as search areas move increasingly under cover. Participants were selected from across Australia, with 12 universities represented.

The 3D orebody modelling component followed presentations, workshops and field practicals. Participants were exposed full circle from conceptual exploration through to modelling and evaluation.

The practical session provided a valuable understanding of the modelling process, the stages involved and tools available.

Students used the latest Vulcan geological modelling tools. Dr Gavin Springbett, G&S Resources, covered geological databases, data appraisal and validation, database compositing, orebody boundary definition (implicit and explicit), surface and block modelling, grade estimation, model visualisation and validation, and resource-reserve estimation.

The alliance between Maptek and The University of Adelaide is set to continue, with a third NExUS program planned for late 2018.