Copperbelt Conference 2019 Roundup
Datamine hosted their first ever annual conference on the Zambian Copperbelt from 4-7 March 2019 at the newly opened Garden Court Hotel in Kitwe.
The conference gave Datamine the opportunity to showcase our improved software (Discover, Studio RM, Ore Controller, Studio UG, MSO and Aegis) and introduce new software (Amine, Studio Survey and Datablast) to the Zambian market as well as respond to the growing need for efficient mining solutions for operations.
“This week I learnt quite a lot by simply being in the presence of people that have been in the mining industry for decades and worked through the improvements in technology. Survey hardware improvements from the RDS through to the Total Station. Cutting down the time to generate a measure report from 14 days of field work and processing to 3 days of the same. With Amine Survey the next paradigm shift is here. Survey memos in under 2 minutes, Drive Solids within 10 seconds, Automated stope dilution analysis. In 5 years’ time surveyors will be wondering how they managed”
– Kalumba Bwale, Business Analyst Survey – Central East Africa Region, Datamine Africa
The conference was targeted at Datamine’s existing and prospective clients. It was well attended with over 30 delegates including surveyors, geologists, mining engineers and mine managers with a wide range of technical expertise. Existing clients included Konkola Copper Mines and Lubambe Copper Mines who showed a huge interest in our mine planning and survey solutions.
“I was impressed by the level of expertise amongst the attendees. It was a great opportunity for us to engage with them, and vice versa.“
– Benny Chisonga, Principal Consultant Geology and Business Lead, Datamine Africa.
The event was structured in the form of a 2-day conference and 2-day workshop. During the conference we had a diverse range of technical sessions including basic and advanced resource estimation led by Benny Chisonga, open pit and underground survey presented by Kalumba Bwale and Ben Vagg, mine planning presented by Henrique Silva as well as operational drill and blast led by Aron Muniz. The 2 workshops offered ran simultaneously which focused on Resource Estimation and Mine Planning allowed the delegates to get hands on experience with the software in a more personal setting.
“I enjoyed the one-on-one interaction during the Mine Planning workshop”.
– Shadvin Kalombo, Underground Manager from prospective client, Mopani Copper Mines,
Our 1st Annual Copperbelt Conference was a great success and we look forward to doing it all again next year!
Below are some pictures of the event in case you missed it:
