Geologist Lance Steel has joined Maptek in Adelaide, bringing a specialist knowledge of underground metalliferous mining and geotechnical applications to his 3D Laser Scanning Consultant role.
Lance previously worked with Maptek in the Johannesburg office to provide technical solutions to mines across the African continent. He extended his expertise in geotechnical consulting for both open pit and underground operations along with stability monitoring.
‘My primary aim is to find out the spatial survey and monitoring issues that Australian mines face every day,’ Lance says.
‘If it’s an underground operation are the geotechnical parameters causing dilution or increasing the dilution ratio. This is an area which can have significant impact over the long term.
‘My goal is to show operations how they can optimise their designs and reduce costs.’
Lance says managing underground geotechnical parameters and drill and blast can also help reduce haulage costs.
‘We’ve got some really useful features coming in Maptek I-Site Studio 8 which could help drill and blast teams to make sure they can optimise their drill and blast,’ he says.
‘In conjunction with Maptek BlastLogic these features will improve crew blasting practices, making sure there’s no need for re-blasting of material and essentially optimising their operation to make it run smoothly.’
Lance will focus on bringing the benefits of I-Site and Sentry geotechnical stability solutions to Australian operations. Monitoring slope stability in open pit environments improves safety and can save costly shutdowns.
The Rhodes University graduate (BSc Hons Geology) began a Masters of Science in Mining Engineering (Rock Engineering) through the University of Witwatersrand and is looking to pursue his studies in Australia in the near future.
After witnessing the growth of Maptek in Africa, he is excited to meet the challenges of the mining industry in Australia and help businesses take advantage of the next upswing in the market.
‘Australia’s got some of the leading technology in the world and Maptek is definitely at the forefront of that,’ he says.
‘It’s an exciting time for me to interact closely with the spatial measurement product development and R&D teams in Adelaide and being able to help optimise our solutions. For instance, I’m keenly interested in finding ways we can improve the technical reporting out of I-Site Studio.’
‘Maptek systems have a keen eye to cost savings across the board. Whether it’s Sentry predicting a failure which could halt operations, or redirecting resources to better move material, operations can anticipate and plan for those changes.’
‘At Maptek we develop systems which allow people to get their job done quicker, opening up time to focus on analysis of data for informed decision making.’
