RPMGlobal has announced an increase in funding for their optimisation software development program after receiving industry funding to support the further ongoing development of their decision support software for underground mining.
The support has been given by the government of Ontario through the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI), an organisation that supports innovators to commercialise new Ontario-based technologies. RPM acquired three optimisation software modules in December 2021 from Sudbury-based MIRARCO as part of a three-year collaborative research partnership. MIRARCO is an innovative solution research provider for the mining industry and research arm of Laurentian University.
Commenting on the OCI support, David Batkin, RPMGlobal’s Head of Product Strategy, said it was terrific to be working with forward-thinking, like-minded organisations.
Batkin said: “RPM and MIRARCO have had a great working relationship for the past few years, and it is fantastic to be enjoying this additional support from OCI, it will go a long way to further develop these important optimisation programs.”
MIRARCO President and CEO Dr Nadia Mykytczuk is thrilled to have secured the OCI funding to support this research. She stated “This collaboration with RPMGlobal will result in full commercialisation and deployment of tools that will benefit the mining industry. We are really excited to have our teams working together as well as bringing together new academic collaborators from Queen’s University.”
The software modules benefitting from the investment are part of RPM’s Design and Scheduling product portfolio. These modules consist of the Advanced Valuation Module and the Ventilation Constraint Module, both of which extend and complement the functionality of RPM’s mine optimisation software solutions.
The Advanced Valuation Module (AVM) facilitates the generation of optimised underground mine plans that are robust to uncertain product prices and ore grades. The Ventilation Constraint Module (VCM) generates optimised underground mine schedules based on ventilation constraints.
The support provided by OCI will be matched by RPMGlobal and will be used to support the multi-year collaboration arrangement between RPM and MIRARCO. OCI has a proven track record when it comes to supporting software development.
Batkin added: “We are very thankful to OCI for this support and for having the foresight and vision to recognise the value that this technology will bring to the underground mining industry.”
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