Mine planning education

Mining has been at the forefront of new technology for decades. The constant need for improved efficiency, safety and profitability has always been the driving force for the development and implementation of the latest technological advances. The mine planning area has traditionally attracted new algorithms and methods to address old and new problems.

Maptek Vulcan is one of the most advanced mine planning software packages available, consistently leading the mining software market with higher efficiency, integration and user friendliness. The importance of trained professionals who can effectively use sophisticated tools like Vulcan is widely recognised by the mining industry.

Vulcan has been installed in the Department of Geotechnology and Environmental Engineering for almost 20 years for teaching computerised mine planning to our undergraduate students.

A dedicated Mining Information Technology course is taught to third-year students, covering all aspects of mine planning with computer software. The friendly interface, advanced visualisation capabilities, clear workflow and high number of integrated algorithms make Vulcan the ideal environment for teaching mine planning to future engineers.

Gaining hands-on experience with software used by thousands of mining professionals worldwide is invaluable to students.

The course notes have been developed over the years, keeping pace with software developments and providing a complete mine planning study through a set of sequenced exercises.

Last year, these notes (written in Greek) were published as a comprehensive reference book titled Introduction to Mining Information Technology with Maptek Vulcan, based on version 10 of the software. With over 500 pages in colour, it introduces students to the fundamentals of samples databases, geological modelling, resource estimation and block modelling, mine design, optimisation and scheduling.

In addition to the dedicated mine planning course, Vulcan is used to support other courses such as Geostatistics, Surface and Underground Mining. Several final year projects have also been based on Vulcan, providing students with further insight to specific mine planning problems.

The benefits of learning mine planning through Vulcan have been recognised by both students and academic staff. Many cases have been reported where our graduates were accepted for postgraduate studies or employment, largely due to the experience and knowledge of the software gained during their studies.

Thanks to
Dr Ioannis Kapageridis
Associate Professor
Technological Educational Institute of Western Macedonia