OA17734A - A system and a method for depletable, natural asset management, accounting and analysis. - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention relates to a natural resource and reserve management system, a corresponding method and a resultant natural asset inventory. The system has means for amalgamating and integrating data from disparate expert technical systems and applications, including computer developed or generated data, into at least one common, spatially-referenced database for use by at least one commercially available inventory management application, in order to provide integrated natural asset management in a natural resource inventory. The natural resources and reserves may comprise of depletable mineral resources and reserves, the amalgamation and integration may be conducted continually, and the data may be from disparate expert technical systems and applications in order to provide integrated mineral asset management in a mineral resource inventory.

Description

A SYSTEM AND A METHOD FOR DEPLETABLE, NATURAL ASSET MANAGEMENT,

ACCOUNTING AND ANALYSIS

Field ofthe Invention

The invention relates to a system and a method for translating non-renewable, natural resources and reserves, such as minerai deposits, and biological natural resources and reserves that are depletable through unsustainable harvestingor biological reproduction, into inventory and stock items that are manageable within an inventory management system, and generating inventory management system transactions based on physical state and/or logical status changes ofthe resources and reserves and the corresponding assets.

Background to the Invention

Proper management and exploitation of non-renewable natural resources and reserves and of biological natural resources and reserves that are depletable through unsustainable harvesting or biological reproduction, require proper assessment of the state and/or status of such resources and reserves. For purposes of this spécification, the term “depletable” shall be used to refer to natural resources and reserves that are either inherently non-renewable or are depletable through unsustainable harvesting or biological reproduction, and the ternTreserve” shall be used to refer to the portion of a resource that is technologically or economically feasible to exploit and shall be deemed to include a so-called “recoverable reserve” or “proved reserve”

Correspondingly, the term “minerai resource”shall be used to refer to minerai bearing material of économie interest in or on the earth's crust, whereas a “minerai reserve” is the portion of such minerai resource that can be mined economically at présent, while the cognate term “oil and gas reserves” woulddefine volumes of gas and oil that can be recovered commercially. Unlike the tangible product inventory of a manufacturing company, many natural resources and reserves are physically located underground or underwater or are spread out over vast or inaccessible territories and can therefore not easily be inspected, assessed or quantified, requiring estimâtes based on the évaluation of technical data that provides evidence of the amount, volumeor concentration of such natural resource or reserve présent.

In the mining industry specifically, suitable technical data has its origins in a variety of information toolsets available to and used by disparate, professional mining technical disciplines. Such mining technical disciplines are typically classified under so-called Geosciences, Survey, Planning, Rock Engineering, Mine Environmental, Mine Design & Schedule, Mining, Engineering, Metallurgy, Sales & Marketing and Réhabilitation (green environmental)

Divisions, with supporting divisions such as Enterprise Strategy, Financial Management, Asset Management, Human Resources, Safety, Health & Environment, Risk Management, Information Technology, Corporate Affaire, Logistics and Material Management. The mining technical data from these disciplines likewise could be reported in technical parameters for material based values such as ore tonnages, slurry densities and minerai grades & recoveries, operational based values such as power consumptions, geological based values such as interprétation of major geological faults & loss factors, and other values such as commodity prices, mine call factors, geologicallosses, mining overbreaks and labour efficiencies.

Historically, mining technical data remained unamalgamated and untransformed into a globally standardized format that could render the data substantially more available for further multidisciplinary visualization and analysis. In the mining industry, specifically, information management with such amalgamation and transformation could provide for enhanced decision making based on an understanding of the financial conséquences of mining technical activity or observation resulting in changes to the state and/or status of a minerai deposit and thus to that of the corresponding minerai asset in the hands of its right, title or interest holder.

The modem mining industry has widely adopted enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) Systems typically for integrating information from a range of internai and external Systems across the entire organization, including finance/accountinq, supply chain, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc., albeit in models where the use of such ERP Systems is largely limited to aspects of the business that exclude the mining technical management of the minerai assets. The ERP Systems are primarily limited to financial and transactional management of the business and related resources and the associated supply chain, offering only nominal benefit to the core business of the mining industry in general and, more particularly, its technical disciplines such as Geosciences, Mine Planning, Mining, Mining Engineering and Survey, and their related supporting disciplines respectively.

Unlike ERP Systems, mining technical Systems based management of minerai assets is typically performed within disparate, expert and usually proprietary mining technical Systems, applications and solutions, typically implemented with the assistance of similarly proprietary application software, specifically designed to service the discrète needs of spécifie mining technical disciplines within mining operations. These Systems and software typically provide a single expert discipline perspective of a minerai asset, without intégration to and amalgamation of data from other separate mining technical disciplines related to the minerai asset.

The non-integrated nature of the mining technical Systems and services domain thus leaves significant areas, including minerai asset valuation, open to discrète interprétation by different 2 technical and commercial disciplines, generally represented by a competent or qualified person within each, often disparate mining organization.

The lack of suitable Systems and methods as well as the limited software intégration internationally between mining technical Systems and ERP Systems are démonstrations of the technical complexity and disparate nature of the mining technical Systems domain and the fact that there are limited processes where the activities from a mining technical perspective hâve a clear one-to-one relationship with a financial or commercial transaction.

The fact that modem mining companies only report on minerai resources and reserves once per annum is a further démonstration of the technical complexity and diversity as well as time consuming nature of the data collecting and assessment process, often comprising of manually integrating and interpreting the various technical data bundles from the mining technical disciplines and their supporting divisions that describe the state of minerai assets. Decisions regarding the application of capital to the minerai assets are accordingly impeded by the lack of intégration between the financial and mining technical domains, as is the tracking and reporting against capital projects at a granular level.

In this spécification, the term “big data” shall be used to refer to a collection of large and/or very complex data or data sets of a magnitude that is not containable in or manageable with relative ease by common, traditional or on-hand data processing platforms, management tools or processing applications.

Object of the Invention

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a system and a method for managing natural resources and reserves, particularly minerai assets, as inventory and/or stock within an inventory management system through the amalgamation and translation of mining technical data and related activities into commercial transactions that are managed and executed within such inventory management system and complementing such transactions through the translation of related technical attributes into inventory or stock descriptors for analytical purposes, in order to optimize the management of such minerai resources and reserves and the exploitation of the spécifie minerai assets.

Summary of the Invention

According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a natural resource and reserve management system characterised in having means for amalgamating and integrating data 3 from disparate expert mining technical Systems and applications, including computer developed or generated data, into at least one common, spatially-referenced database for use by at least one commercially available inventory management application, in order to provide integrated natural asset management in a natural resource inventory.

The system may be characterised wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves, the amalgamation and intégration are conducted continually, and the data is from disparate expert technical Systems and applications in order to provide integrated minerai asset management in a minerai resource inventory.

The system may be characterised in having means for:

• integrating and amalgamating big volumes of multi-disciplinary mining technical information; and • leveraging the ability to process big volumes of data in an efficient manner;

thereby effectively bridging the divide between the complexity of multi-disciplinary mining technical information and the methodical world of reporting, analysis, simulation and optimization through translating technical interactions and observations in the relevant commercial context.

The system may be characterised in having means for analyzing and translating mining resources and reserves into inventory and stock items that are manageable in an inventory management system and application and are capable of being analyzed and reported on in a combination of existing inventory management applications and business intelligence applications.

The system may be characterised in being capable of processing changes in mining resources and reserves as a resuit of changes in the source data contained in any of the mining technical Systems and applications in real time and updating the minerai resource inventory accordingly.

The system may be characterised in having means for reporting resources and reserves from within the minerai resource inventory in compliance with regulatory codes, as opposed to the current convention of reporting from a collection of typically non-integrated expert mining technical Systems and applications.

According to a second aspect of the invention there is provided a natural resource and reserve management system characterised in having means for translating natural resources and reserves into inventory and stock items that are manageable within an inventory management system, leveraging real-time, big data computing capabilities in order to track over time any changes in the logical status or physical state of the resources and reserves at a granular, spatially indexed level and translating such changes into conventional inventory management transactions capable of being processed in an inventory management application as commercial transactions.

The system may be characterised wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves and wherein the translations are conducted continually, in order to track any changes over time in the logical status or physical state of the minerai resources and reserves at a pre-selected level of granulation and spatial index.

The system may be characterised in having business rules pertaining to the translation that synthesize mine technical and financial controls, regulatory codes and generally accepted best practices to ensure optimal exploitation of a minerai asset, including the application of capital to the minerai asset.

The system may be characterised in having means for amalgamating and translating technical interactions with and observations of the minerai asset by any technical and associated disciplines that effect changes to the logical status or physical state of the minerai asset at any given spatial location into materials management transactions, which are executed against the minerai resource inventory in the form of at least one of the group of inventory-orientated transactions comprising of:

• accrual, mimicking procure or acquire transactions;

• déplétion, mimicking inventory or stock issue transactions;

• shrinkage, mimicking theft or removal processing;

• ullage, mimicking write-off of stock due to damage; and • movement, mimicking relocation of stock.

The system may be characterised in having means for translating at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data contained within the disparate expert proprietary mining technical Systems and applications and solutions from which data is extracted, amalgamated and/or translated, to attributes of the inventory or stock within the minerai resource inventory.

The system may be characterised in having means for retaining at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data being configured within the minerai resource inventory system for analytical and descriptive purposes, based on the requirements of the customer organization.

The system may be characterised in having means for using at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data to conduct any one of the actions selected from the group consisting of reporting, analyzing, simulating, optimizing and performing analytics on the inventory or stock items and modeling the impact of interaction and observation by the various technical disciplines on the minerai asset, as performed within business intelligence and analytics platforms.

The system may be characterised in having means for reporting resources and reserves from within the minerai resource inventory in compliance with regulatory codes.

According to a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method for natural resource and reserve management, the method including the steps of:

• integrating and amalgamating big volumes of multi-disciplinary technical data from disparate expert technical Systems and applications, including computer developed and generated data, into at least one common, spatially-referenced dataset; and • integrating the consolidated résultant dataset with at least one commercially available inventory management application;

in order to provide integrated natural asset management in a natural asset resource inventory, effectively bridging the divide between the complexity of multi-disciplinary technical information and the methodical world of accounting and audit practice through translating technical interactions and observations in the relevant commercial context.

The method may be characterised wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves, the amalgamation and intégrations are conducted continually, and the data is from disparate expert mining technical Systems and applications in order to provide integrated minerai asset management in a minerai resource inventory.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a method for natural resource and reserve management wherein the natural resources and reserves are translated into inventory and stock items that are managed within an inventory management system, the method including the steps of:

• tracking over time changes in the logical status or physical state of the resources and reserves at a granular, spatially indexed level, with the use of suitable big data computing capabilities; and • translating such changes into conventional inventory management transactions for processing on an inventory management application as commercial transactions.

The method may be characterised wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves, the changes are tracked continually for purposes of a minerai inventory management system at a pre-selected level of granulation and spatial index.

The method may include the step of synthesizing mine technical and financial controls, regulatory codes and generally accepted best practices by means of a set of business rules for the translations to ensure optimal exploitation of a minerai asset.

The method may include the step of amalgamating and translating technical interactions with and observations of the minerai asset, by technical and associated disciplines that effect changes to the logical status or physical state of the minerai asset at any given spatial location, into materials management transactions, which are executed against the minerai resource inventory in the form of at least one of the inventory-orientated transactions selected from the group consisting of accrual, mimicking procure or acquire transactions; déplétion, mimicking inventory or stock issue transactions; shrinkage, mimicking theft or removal processing; ullage, mimicking write-off of stock due to damage; and movement, mimicking relocation of stock.

The method may include the step of translating ail technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data contained within the disparate expert proprietary mining technical système and applications and solutions, from which data is extracted, amalgamated and/or translated, to attributes ofthe inventory or stock within the minerai resource inventory.

The method may include the step of configuring at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data to persist within the minerai resource inventory system for analytical and descriptive purposes, based on the requirements of the customer organization.

The method may include at least one of the steps selected from the group consisting of reporting, analyzing, simulating, optimizing and performing analytics on the inventory or stockitems and modeling the impact of interaction and observations by the various technical disciplines on the minerai asset, as performed within business intelligence and analytics platforms, with the use of at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data.

The method may include the step of reporting resources and reserves from within the minerai resource inventory in compliance with regulatory codes.

According to a fifth aspect of the invention there is provided a natural asset inventory, comprising of natural resources and reserves, translated into inventory and stock items that are manageable within an inventory management system with the use of big data computing capabilities in order to track over time any changes in the logical status or physical state of the resources and reserves at a granular, spatially indexed level, and wherein the such changes are translated into conventional inventory management transactions capable of being processed in the inventory management application as commercial transactions.

The natural asset inventory may be characterised wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves and wherein the change is effected by the impact of interaction and observations by the various technical disciplines on minerai assets in order to provide a minerai asset inventory at a pre-selected level of granulation and spatial index.

Detailed Description ofthe Invention

A preferred embodiment of the invention shall now be described with reference to the accompanying diagrams wherein:

Diagram 1, reflecting a process map key, is a représentation ofthe IDEFO modeling tool commonly used to produce a model or structured représentation of the functions of a system and of the information and objects which tie those functions together;

Diagram 2, reflecting a proprietary minerai asset inventory management system model of the applicant, is an overview process map describing the sequential flow of mining technical information with value adding methods applied to provide improved business decisions in the context of minerai asset management;

Diagram 3 reflectsan industrial example of spatial reporting constant;

Diagram 4 reflects mining technical & support disciplines and their impact across the mining value chain;

Diagram 5 reflects mining technical & support disciplines and their relationship to material management transactions;

Diagram 6 reflects a geo-x effect on resources and reserves;

Diagram 7 reflectsa minerai parameter meter;

Diagram 8 reflectsa mining features database;

Diagram 9 reflectsan amalgamation, translation and transaction cube;

Diagram 10 reflects a minerai inventory or stock storage bin; and

Diagram 11 reflectsthe geo-financial intégration process holistically, in accordance with the invention.

The invention comprises of a system for and method of managing the minerai asset in a mining organization by means of a so-called minerai resource inventory system, whereby the minerai asset is managed as inventory and/or stock in one or more implémentations of a commercially available inventory management application system.

The minerai resource inventory management system and associated process involve the intégration of data from disparate expert proprietary mining technical Systems and applications and solutions designed to service the discrète needs of spécifie mining technical disciplines within mining operations and the amalgamation of such data into a single spatially-indexed data structure encapsulating ali spatial, design, descriptive and quantification attributes related to the source data, providing a perspective that reflects a multi-disciplinary perspective on any given spatial location.

Diagram 1,reflecting a process map key, shows the conventional IDEFO modeling tool commonly used to produce a model or structured représentation of the functioning of a system and of the information and objects which tie that functioning together. Typically, each sequential process 5 will hâve inputs 2, and value added outputs 6, constrained by one or more controls 1. Each process is able to call 3 on other mechanisms 4 to enable the process.

Diagram 2,reflecting a proprietary minerai asset inventory management system model according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, describes the sequential flow of mining technical information with value adding methods applied to provide improved business decisions in the context of minerai asset management. The diagram shows the extraction 7 of mining technical discipline spatial geometries and attributes of such geometries that are potential modifying factors to the geology from disparate expert proprietary mining technical Systems and applications and solutions. The diagram further shows the deconstruction of the dimension and fact data contained within such disparate expert software applications and solutions, based on a configurable sélection 8 of such potential modifying factors, into:

1. one or more spatial databases containing ail spatial references, collections of space and shapes related to mining and applies a common spatial reference System to locate ail spatial data within a common reference System; and

2. a collection of ail technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data contained within the disparate expert proprietary mining technical Systems and applications and solutions from which data are extracted, amalgamated 9 and translated to attributes that describe the collective disciplines’ perspective on the minerai asset, contained within a collective amalgamated database.

The amalgamation 9 of mining technical information performs a spatial mining method based intersection 11 of ail geometries in line with the configured attribute boundaries specified for the spatial database and mining feature attribute set 10 and introduces a spatial reporting constant 8, overlaid on the amalgamated dataset and able to support a composite geo-x cube 12, which adopts a level of granularity required to encapsulate the necessary level of reporting detail as needed for any spécifie volume of responsibility.

Diagram 3 illustrâtes the method implemented in the détermination ofthe required granularity in a contiguous division of space to the level of granularity required to encapsulate an element at the required granular spatial représentation, demonstrated in 29 through 33A, using any instance or combination ofthe platonic shapes.

Diagram 5 contains a list of mining technical and support disciplines and depicts potential inventory journal transactions that may resuit from technical activities they may perform in their daily operational capacityin accordance with the invention.

Diagram 7 reflects a minerai parameter meter.exposing many important variables required to provide a routine and comprehensive understanding of the interaction between mining methods and ore body. It caters for the routine monitoring of identified resource and reserve modifying factors, tracking the relevant parameters as any changes become known, assessed as to current acceptability and related to historical trends.

Diagram 8 reflects a mining features database, a collection of features contributed by multiple mining technical disciplines such as Geology, Mine Design & Scheduling and Survey each with its properties and attributes, etc. Attributes can infer characteristics such as confidence classification, tonnes, grade, volume of responsibility, period of mining, etc., with relevance 10 defined by the mining company’s requirements and reporting codes. Analytical possibilities are opened up due to ability to utilise existing business intelligence tools and methods on inventory and stock.

Diagram 9 addresses the core principles related to the manner in which minerai assets are spatially handled, as the key to the amalgamation 9, translation and création of transactions to process as inventory journal transaction équivalents of spatial geometry, with a stated level of attributed confidence. As more information becomes available, changes to size and shape are acknowledged, and the amalgamation of new information will resuit in a sériés of translations based on intersecting geometries.

The following is a démonstration of the manner in which spatial geometries reflect the current understanding, based on the extent and maturity of information available, as to the constitution ofthe minerai asset as it relates to the spécifie geometry:

Portion of minerai asset recognized as waste 60;

Portion of minerai asset recognized as ore 61;

Délinéation boundary between defined ore and waste 63;

Planned boundary for mining excavation 64;

Mined out volume 65;

Volume of minerai asset undergoing update based on new information 66; and Planned mining volume based on updated minerai asset knowledge 67.

Diagram 6 is a schematic représentation of the manner in which modifying factors 34 to 39 are introduced by the various individual parties/disciplines who and/or which may hâve an impact on the overall confidence in terms of classifying the potential to exploit the minerai asset. The system is aware of the permutated cross-discipline impact on the minerai asset, the principle of which is explained above.

The permutated geo-x effect on resources and reserves is the net resuit of the application of mining technical sciences to the sum of minerai asset knowledge, including considération of multiple geo-sciences together with considération of mining, metallurgical, économie, marketing, legal, environmental, social and government factors, deemed as modifying factors which influence the confidence in terms of resource and reserve classifications.

Inter-operability between disparate expert proprietary Systems and applications and solutions reverses the deconstruction process by extracting and reconstituting both spatial and attribute data from the amalgamated databases into the file format and structure required by the spécifie expert proprietary software system or application or solution.

The system interrogates the composite geo-x cube 12 at the lowest level of applied granularity in terms of 29-33A, i.e. per geo-x block, within 55, 56 the bounds and définitions 13 of the relevant regulatory reporting code 56 and extended to include the company information requirements 58 required for further inventory and stock analysis 57, based on books of standards 53 & 54 mapped as the filters to the amalgamated attributes relevant to the mining technical disciplines, persisted 59 in the mining features database 52. The résultant attributes are persisted 59 as inventory or stock descriptive and quantification data.

The system contains a spatial database 10 and mining feature attribute set, which implements a configuration capability as a minerai parameter meter that sets firm perspectives on variables which are acceptable between spécifie bounds 40, relative to an academie mean 41. This includesparameters such as density 42, interprétation 43 of major faults as geological loss factors, commodity price 44, mine call factor 45, pothole losses 46, mining overbreak 47, labor efficiency 48, etc. This relates to a configurable interprétation of mining factors that becomes a constant through which translation occurs. This allows it to be configurable per ore body, commodity or legal entity such as a company to align classification of inventory and stock in an inventory management application platform to the related resource and reserve reporting codes.

The system dérivés a classification of inventory or stock through analysis utilizing emergent 14 big data analytics technology at a geo-x block level, interrogating the current state and status of the block, represented by a permutated interprétation of the attributes in the amalgamated database, which describe the features of the geology as mapped to the spatial constant 8, creating a data set from which the detailed requirements for creating an inventory journal transaction can be constructed.

The system créâtes journal transactions for execution within an inventory management system to place a reference to the spécifie geo-x block, based on the classification of inventory or stock which is derived, in a storage bin location within the inventory system along with associated attributes defined in 54, 55, 56. This step relates to translating 15 a set of attributes and attribute information into a financial journal transaction 16, passed to the inventory management application for execution as the initial population of the inventory management application. Journal transactions 16 are processed in one of five transaction types 17, and are extensible to more if needed. This process, at take-on, is repeated for each relevant geo-x block within the database.

Diagram 10 illustrâtes howthe minerai inventory or stock storage bin définition is derived, based on the common principles across the various resource and reporting codes. The définitions for the matrix in diagram 10 are:

Axis for increasing confidence of classification within minerai asset 68;

Axis for increasing grade categories within minerai asset 69;

Portion of minerai asset designated as in situ resource inventory 70;

Portion of minerai asset designated as in situ reserve inventory 71; Portion of minerai asset designated as in progress reserve stock 72; Increasing grade categories 73 to 77; and

Increasing confidence of classification categories 78 to 82.

Storage bins are defined by considérations of minerai content quality ranges and information confidence levels. While minerai content quality ranges must suit the mining company’s purposes such as determining commercial grade cutoffs, information confidence levels relate to resource and reserve classifications as per the relevant reporting code.

Continuous real-time monitoring of the attributes within the amalgamated database, at a level of granularity where a relevant attribute changes within a single geo-x block, initiâtes a reintersection of the related/affected blocks and an update to the database through the process of 17 journal processing. Mining technical disciplines that interact with the minerai asset in a manner that may affect attributes that hâve an influence / impact on the minerai asset are listed in diagram 4, elaborated in terms of their impact across the mining value chain as depicted in the open group exploration & mining business process reference model.

Based on the processing of journal transactions within the inventory management application, the minerai resource inventory is populated, and one can report 21 on minerai asset status at any level of granularity. Reporting principles are subject to the relevant regulatory reporting code and company analysis requirements 18. Geo-x blocks are stored within inventory/stock storage bin locations in a hierarchy that reflects the resource and reserve code based classifications from lowest confidence 50 to highest, and lowest grade 51 to highest in any combination dépendent on the configured reporting code. Reporting takes into considération current and historical status records 20and is aware of the latest reporting block updates19, which hâve been processed as journal transactions 17. The minerai asset status 21 is updated by calling on each affected reporting block update 19 to provide the current and historical status records 20 with regard to changes in the minerai asset statuses.

Intersecting the spatial reporting constant 8 with the current and historical status records 20 (historical attributes) that had previously effected changes to the minerai asset allows for a time based status (logical, e.g. spécifie grade) and/or state (physical - e.g. faulting or mined out) analysis of the minerai asset and the ability to interrogate the minerai asset in a time sériés analysis, which is introduced to geological analyses in this invention. The system overlays the amalgamated geological data over the reporting cube and dérivés the individual versions of minerai asset change through reference and/or réconciliation to the original reporting cube and subséquent attribute updates through expert mining technical Systems and applications. In this manner it handles history and the traceability and auditability through retaining a full transactional record of how and where attributes changed to effect a change in inventory.

Resource and reserve reporting can now be performed on resource and reserves 22 as attributed inventory and stock, up to date to reflect the latest 19 reporting block updates, subject to the attribute configuration relative to the book of standards 8.

The emergence of big data analytics technologies, and the future technologies in this space, enables the ongoing real-time update of the minerai asset inventory as changes are made to the attributes in the various expert mining technical Systems and applications and updated to the amalgamated database. The system 26 accounts for the financial impact of changed states and statuses of minerai assets using standard analytical tools and techniques 24, guided in design by minerai asset accounting and valuation principles 23, leading to a clear understanding of the financial conséquences 25 of technical activities and allowing the execution of reporting scénarios to enable 27 enhanced business decision making.

The system processes changes to the minerai asset within the minerai asset inventory by iterating through the steps in the system and method, with the exception that the focus is on changed attributes versus a complété re-population of the minerai inventory, thus reiterating 28 the process as and when new activities and information occur.

The completely integrated process of the geo-financial intégration is illustrated in figure 11, comprising of the sub-processes of (a) amalgamation of the aboriginal data, (b) intersection of the affected volume of interest, (c) création of journal transactions, (d) reporting on minerai asset status, and (e) accounting for financial impact of changed status of minerai Asset.

In an industry application, as reflected in diagram 11, the geo-financial intégration process is applied holistically, in accordance with the invention, reflecting ail the functions from the amalgamation of aboriginal data toaccounting for the financial impact of changed state and status of the minerai asset under management. The Systems and methods being introduced are unique in the intégration that the invention brings about in the mining industry, crossing over 14 mining technical, financial accounting and administration boundaries in a broad intégration of known technologies and application domains, to create an objective information source underlying the minerai asset and provide comprehensive auditability and traceability of changes to the state and/or status of the minerai asset in a real-time mode leveraging the emergence of capabilities to service big data volumes with performance increased by orders of magnitude.

More particularly, the invention translates mining technical transactions from a wide range of disparate, proprietary expert applications into inventory transactions through integrating data across the total miningtechnical Systems domain and amalgamates such data into a single source; then transacts ali mining activities within any commercially available inventory management application in order to manage the minerai asset within the bounds of generally accepted best practices. The invention enables both the commercial management competencies and the miningtechnical competencies within a mining organization to collaborate in the management of the minerai asset to its maximum value as if within a single, controlled technology domain and chart of accounts. The invention enables commercial modeling and scénario management through the application of standard business intelligence tools and techniques to the amalgamated model.

The invention also instantiates a discrète spatial constant against which mining technical activities are translated to commercially oriented inventory transactions, thereby introducing an advanced level of objectivity into the valuation of minerai assets.

The invention further translates geological and other mining technical activities impacting the minerai asset into conventional inventory transactions, managed in any commercially available inventory management application, thus introducing the ability to include the minerai asset in the chart of accounts of a mining company. History of changes driven by technical activities is managed within the inventory application and enables auditability and traceability and extends to versioning reporting across timelines. The total lifecycle, technical and commercial, can be audited from a single point and platform.

The novelty of the invention thus also résides in the fact that it introduces totally new Systems and methods of amalgamating, integrating and processing technical and financial data and methods of interprétation and, accordingly, novel Systems and methods of managing natural resources and reserves such as minerai resources and reserves, including minerai assets, particularly from a technical and a financial perspective. The capabilities introduced by this invention are of a sufficient quantum to make a material and invaluable différence in the technical and financial assessment,reporting and valuation of minerai resources and reserves, including minerai assets, and therefore ofthe corresponding mining companies.

It will however be appreciated that many variations in detail are possible without departing from the scope and/or spirit of the inventions as claimed in the claims hereinafter, such as its implémentation both as an application system and as an intégration of multiple Systems as described hereinabove, and can also be extended to implement as audit and consulting

Systems and méthodologies, thus adding value to the technical aspects of mining and financial auditing, as well as the broader investor community and the management of other depletable natural resources.

Claims (26)

1. Claims:

   1. A natural resource and reserve management system characterised in having means for amalgamating and integrating data from disparate expert technical Systems and applications, including computer developed or generated data, into at least one common, spatially-referenced database for use by at least one commercially available inventory management application, in order to provide integrated natural asset management in a natural resource inventory.
2. 2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves, the amalgamation and intégration are conducted continually, and the data is from disparate expert technical Systems and applications in order to provide integrated minerai asset management in a minerai resource inventory.
3. 3. The system as claimed in claim 2characterised in having means for:

   • integrating and amalgamating big volumes of multi-disciplinary mining technical information; and • leveraging the ability to process big volumes of data in an efficient manner;

   thereby effectively bridging the divide between the complexity of multi-disciplinary mining technical information and the methodical world of reporting, analysis, simulation and optimization through translating technical interactions and observations in the relevant commercial context.
4. 4. The system as claimed in claim 3 characterised in having means for analyzing and translating mining resources and reserves into inventory and stock items that are manageable in an inventory management system and application and are capable of being analyzed and reported on in a combination of existing inventory management applications and business intelligence applications.
5. 5. The system as claimed in claim 4 characterised in being capable of processing changes in mining resources and reserves as a resuit of changes in the source data contained in any of the mining technical Systems and applications in real time and updating the minerai resource inventory accordingly.
6. 6. The system as claimed in claim 5 characterised in having means for reporting resources and reserves from within the minerai resource inventory in compliance with regulatory codes, as opposed to the current convention of reporting from a collection of typically non-integrated expert mining technical Systems and applications.
7. 7. A Natural resource and reserve management system characterised in having means for translating natural resources and reserves into inventory and stock items that are manageable within an inventory management system, leveraging real-time, big data computing capabilities in order to track over time any changes in the logical status or physical state of the resources and reserves at a granular, spatially indexed level and translating such changes into conventional inventory management transactions capable of being processed in an inventory management application as commercial transactions.
8. 8. The system as claimed in claim 7 wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves and wherein the translations are conducted continually, in order to track any changes over time in the logical status or physical state of the minerai resources and reservesat a pre-selected level of granulation and spatial index.
9. 9. The system as claimed in claim 8 characterised in having business rules pertaining to the translation that synthesize mine technical and financial controls, regulatory codes and generally accepted best practices to ensure optimal exploitation of a minerai asset, including the application of capital to the minerai asset.
10. 10. The system as claimed in claim 9 characterised in having means for amalgamating and translating technical interactions with and observations of the minerai asset by any technical and associated disciplines that effect changes to the logical status or physical state of the minerai asset at any given spatial location into materials management transactions, which are executed against the minerai resource inventory in the form of at least one of the group of inventory-orientated transactions comprising of:

    • accrual, mimicking procure or acquire transactions;

    • déplétion, mimicking inventory or stock issue transactions;

    • shrinkage, mimicking theft or removal processing;

    • ullage, mimicking write-off of stock due to damage; and • movement, mimicking relocation of stock.
11. 11. The system as claimed in claim 10 characterised in having means for translating at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data contained within the disparate expert proprietary mining technical Systems and applications and solutions from which data is extracted, amalgamated and/or translated, to attributes of the inventory or stock within the minerai resource inventory.
12. 12. The System as claimed in claim 11 characterised in having means for retaining at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data being configured within the minerai resource inventory system for analytical and descriptive purposes, based on the requirements ofthe customer organization.
13. 13. The system as claimed in claim 12 characterised in having means for using at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data to conduct any one of the actions selected from the group consisting of reporting, analyzing, simulating, optimizing and performing analytics on the inventory or stock items and modeling the impact of interaction and observation by the various technical disciplines on the minerai asset, as performed within business intelligence and analytics platforms.
14. 14. The system as claimed in claim 13 characterised in having means for reporting resources and reserves from within the minerai resource inventory in compliance with regulatory codes.
15. 15. A method for natural resource and reserve management, the method including the steps of:

    • integrating and amalgamating big volumes of multi-disciplinary technical data from disparate expert technical Systems and applications, including computer developed and generated data, into at least one common, spatially-referenced dataset; and • integrating the consolidated résultant dataset with at least one commercially available inventory management application;

    in order to provide integrated natural asset management in a natural asset resource inventory, effectively bridging the divide between the complexity of multi-disciplinary technical information and the methodical world of accounting and audit practice through translating technical interactions and observations in the relevant commercial context.
16. 16. The method as claimed in claim 15 wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves, the amalgamation and intégrations are conducted continually, and the data is from disparate expert mining technical Systems and applications in order to provide integrated minerai asset management in a minerai resource inventory.
17. 17. A method for natural resource and reserve management wherein the natural resources and reserves are translated into inventory and stock items that are managed within an inventory management system, the method including the steps of:

    • tracking over time changes in the logical status or physical state of the resources and reserves at a granular, spatially indexed level, with the use of suitable big data computing capabilities; and • translating such changes into conventional inventory management transactions for processing on aninventory management application as commercial transactions.
18. 18. The method as claimed in claim 17 wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves, the changes are tracked continually for purposes of a minerai inventory management systemat a pre-selected level of granulation and spatialindex.
19. 19. The method as claimed in claim 18 including the step of synthesizing mine technical and financial controls, regulatory codes and generally accepted best practices by means of a set of business rules for the translations to ensure optimal exploitation of a minerai asset.
20. 20. The method as claimed in claim 19 including the step of amalgamating and translating technical interactions with and observations of the minerai asset, by technical and associated disciplines that effect changes to the logical status or physical state of the minerai asset at any given spatial location, into materials management transactions, which are executed against the minerai resource inventory in the form of at least one of the inventory-orientated transactions selected from the group consisting of accrual, mimicking procure or acquire transactions; déplétion, mimicking inventory or stock issue transactions; shrinkage, mimicking theft or removal processing; ullage, mimicking write-off of stock due to damage; and movement, mimicking relocation of stock.
21. 21. The method as claimed in claim 20 including the step of translating ail technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data contained within the disparate expert proprietary mining technical Systems and applications and solutions, from which data is extracted, amalgamated and/or translated, to attributes of the inventory or stock within the minerai resource inventory.
22. 22. The method as claimed in claim 21 including the step of configuring at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data to persist within the minerai resource inventory system for analytical and descriptive purposes, based on the requirements of the customer organization.
23. 23. The method as claimed in claim 22 including at least one of the steps selected from the group consisting of reporting, analyzing, simulating, optimizing and performing analytics on the inventory or stock items and modeling the impact of interaction and observations by the various technical disciplines on the minerai asset, as performed within business intelligence and analytics platforms, with the use of at least some of the technical descriptions, annotations, features and properties data.
24. 24. The method as claimed in claim 23 including the step of reporting resources and reserves from within the minerai resource inventory in compliance with regulatory codes.
25. 25. A natural asset inventory, comprising of natural resources and reserves, translated into inventory and stock items that are manageable within an inventory management system with the use of big data computing capabilities in order to track overtime any changes in the logical status or physical state ofthe resources and reserves at a granular, spatially indexed level, and wherein the such changes are translated into conventional inventory management transactions capable of being processed in the inventory management application as commercial transactions.
26. 26. The natural asset inventory as claimed in claim 25 wherein the natural resources and reserves are depletable minerai resources and reserves and wherein the change is effected by the impact of interaction and observations by the various technical disciplines on minerai assets in order to provide a minerai asset inventoryat a pre-selected level of granulation and spatial index.