Decision Making FundamentalsData Management

23rd
Annual
Seminar Decision Making Fundamentals
Data Management
Paul Whelan Metech Canada Ltd. (March 2006)

Introduction
Resource models and mine plans are direct derivatives of the raw data collected from
drilling and sampling. As we all know the investment risk, that is taken for granted in
mining and exploration, is unprecedented in any other industry.
The quality and reliability of the geologic models and subsequent mine plans rely on the
availability and quality of the raw data.
Therefore, secure management of the initial observations and measurement (drilling and
sampling) is crucial to assist in the subsequent decisions that will determine the mine plans
and the economics of the operation.
What is Data?
Data is just data, until it is organized in a meaningful way, at which point it becomes
information
This clich suggest that the observations and measurements collected by scientists and
engineers needs to be organized so it can be analyzed and interpreted, and at this point it
can be described as information.

The acQuire Data Model (ADM) is the organized

repository that Metech has developed.

Data is irreplaceable! If the data is not housed in a secure repository where it can be
accessed when needed, the expense involved in attempting to recover or reproduce this
data can be enormous. Even though a hole can be re-drilled, fundamentally, the original
data can never be replaced.
Data Clients
The tools that allow us to turn this data into information are the data clients. MineSight
applications and even acQuire itself become the tools to analyze and make informed
judgements from these results.
Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QAQC) can be evaluated with the acQuire
tools and MineSight Data Analyst (MSDA) can evaluate the statistical nature of the
sample population. MineSight 3-D allows us to construct geologic models and mine plans
based on the foundation of good data.

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 Decision Making FundamentalsData Management

23rd
Annual
Seminar

Data Reliability
Due to the regulatory requirements that every company is obliged to uphold, the
necessity for a secure, robust data management system has become mandatory. The
ability to reproduce the reported results in models and designs from scratch also makes
sustainable data management a requirement.
Historically, the extra detail about sampling and drilling would have been discarded
and lost, as the mine planning systems had no place or need to store this information.
Examples like the analysis method, analyzes detection limits, dispatching information,
QAQC details should be recorded to asses the reliability of the data. A professional
database design is therefore needed.

Duplicates (Precision) Standards and Blanks (Accuracy)

Sustainable Solutions
Some corporations historically have embarked upon developing solutions themselves
and invariably the projects become white elephants and die a slow, painful, and
expensive death. Many factors can contribute to this, including staff loss, budget cuts, and
rapid technological advances just to name some.
What acQuire offers is a professionally designed data model with a mature software
application to mange the database. The ability to deliver the data to the mine planning
applications in an efficient and rapid method is key to the data management solution.
acQuire has had 10 years of development history and decades of professional
experience guiding the direction of acQuire. Metech is committed to continuing to
develop a solution that takes advantage of modern technology and fully support the user
group that has become a very global community.

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