About HighGrade

HighGrade is Australasia’s weekly online mining magazine delivering to readers the high-grade cut of mining industry news from around the region, and the globe. read more

Contact Us

Click for larger

Dynamic support simulations, not rocket science

May 15 - 21, 2013

RESPECTED rock mechanics engineer Peter Mikula welcomed aerospace engineering PhD Charles Lilley to the Ground Support 2013 stage with an optimistic aside. “Maybe we’ll get the fastest [rock] bolt we’ve ever seen”. Lilley suggested he and the team at Beck Engineering had something more valuable.

Read full article

Click for larger

Henderson a model subject

May 15 - 21, 2013

QUALITY data is still the key to valuable predictive studies, but current numerical modelling technology and methodology is proving accurate and more than useful in critical ground support validation and assessment work, as shown again by Itasca at the Henderson molybdenum mine in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.

Read full article

Real-time data the key to improved profitability

May 15 - 21, 2013

WE ARE moving ever closer to a totally connected world, a state that some are calling “the Internet of Things”. It’s a world in which more and more inanimate objects are fitted with sensors that feed data onto networks. This rising flood of data is part of the Big Data phenomenon, and it’s increasingly being seen as a source of vital information that will enable companies to gain new insights into the way their businesses work, so improving performance through better decision-making.

Read the full article


RPM releases new version of iconic software

May 15 - 21, 2013

MAY 20: Australian mining technology and services firm RungePincockMinarco (RPM) has released the latest version of its TALPAC mine modelling software, TALPAC 10.2.1, and says it is committed to ongoing development of the product.

Read the full article


Mintec gets CIM lift in Toronto

May 15 - 21, 2013

MAY 20: Presentations by Mintec’s Toronto-branch manager, Richard Moffett at the CIM mining conference earlier this month have helped boost interest in the software developer’s MineSight Implicit Modeler product.

Read the full article


CAE profit nosedives

May 15 - 21, 2013

MAY 17: CANADIAN simulator training technology giant CAE booked $C2104.5 million of revenue for the year ended March 31, 2013, up 16% from $1821.2 million in FY12, with the ‘core new markets’ division (including mining software) contributing more than the $100 million targeted for the year.

Read the full article


Austmine platform for Micromine launch

May 15 - 21, 2013

LONG-TIME Austmine member Micromine will use next week’s Austmine International Exhibition and Convention in Western Australia to preview its flagship Micromine 2013 software.

Read the full article


Maptek goes for gold in Brazil

May 15 - 21, 2013

MAY 15: MINNG technology and services company Maptek has committed to Gold level sponsorship of the 36th APCOM symposium, the major biannual mineral industry computing and operational research event, to be held in Brazil for the first time in November this year.

Read the full article


Bentley promises industrial-strength returns from app investment

May 8 - 14, 2013

BENTLEY Systems says it has integrated the former Ivara EXP Enterprise software into its product development process and systems architecture, and positioned the asset performance management software to fully tap emerging mobility apps, with the newly released AssetWise Ivara Performance Management 7.0.

Read the full article


Atlas to put short-term planning back on the map

May 8 - 14, 2013

IN THE middle of a hectic new product launch schedule, Mintec says next month’s release of MineSight Atlas is a real highlight. The manual scheduling and stockpile management package could “reshape the world of short-term planning”, according to its developer.

Read the full article


Norilsk buys Australian simulator technology

May 8 - 14, 2013

AUSTRALIAN mining simulator developer Immersive Technologies has had a significant breakthrough in Russia with the sale of a UG360-B underground equipment operator training simulator to Norilsk Nickel.

Read the full article


Rocking on in Hangzhou, Vegas

May 8 - 14, 2013

ITASCA is urging those with an interest in the increasing usefulness of high-powered numerical modelling in solving a broad spectrum of engineering problems to get themselves to China in October; Hangzhou to be more precise. Meanwhile, Sweden’s Hexagon has chosen a more conventional venue for its international conference in June. Viva Las Vegas!

Read the full article


IT notebook: Sundial, Position Partners, BOC

May 8 - 14, 2013

XSTRATA, Peabody and Grange Resources are among the early users of a new electronic whiteboard software application from Sundial Technologies.

Read the full article


Mining education pioneer honoured with endowment

May 1 - 7, 2013

AUSTRALIA’S Maptek has strengthened its links with one of the USA’s major mining schools with the creation of the $A280,000 Ziggy Hladysz Maptek Endowment.

Read the full article


Srivastava to address workshops

May 1 - 7, 2013

RESOURCE estimation and geostatistics expert Mohan Srivastava will this month deliver two geostatistics workshops in Indonesia, one minerals focused and the other coal, in events organised by Australian mining software and consultancy group Micromine in association with Mining Media International.

Read the full article


Cliffs identifies steep gains

May 1 - 7, 2013

USING technology to identify “massive annual savings through improved load and spot times” has earned Cliffs Natural Resources an acknowledgment from one of its suppliers – a real win-win for the miner.

Read the full article


ISS confident activity will translate into sales

April 24 - 30, 2013

ENERGY and mining software developer ISS Group (ASX:ISS) remains confident of converting “significant opportunities" in key regional markets into sales over the balance of FY13 after lifting revenues 8% year-on-year in the nine months to March 31.

Read the full article


Growth tougher for XRF Scientific

April 24 - 30, 2013

ITS XRock Automation JV, emerging-market focus and possible acquisitions constitute the ‘X’ factor for ASX-listed XRF Scientific, but after a strong first half the short-term growth prospects for the company have dimmed along with mining’s exploration and capital spending hopes, according to Micro Equities.

Read the full article


Clients see merit in Mintec quest

April 24 - 30, 2013

MINING software company Mintec is happy to have its first MineQuest event done and dusted for 2013, but even happier clients have walked away acknowledging it is moving in the right direction with its product development.

Read the full article


Smart technology, big data mining’s new frontier

April 17 - 23, 2013

MINING in Australia is “on the cusp of a major generational change” where smart technology and big data could help deliver productivity gains in an ever more challenging environment, according to leading research scientists.

Read the full article


View entire archive