What we need from the site to get started
Nothing the operation doesn't already generate. The difference is in cross-checking it, not producing it again.
What your operation already produces
Essential
- Site coordinate system (UTM zone).
- Short-term designs and phase sequence in DXF.
- As-built surveys (drone, GPS or laser scanner) in DXF or GeoTIFF.
- Block model with grade, density and NSR per block.
- Plant feed tonnage, measured independently.
Adds precision
- Blast-hole grade control samples, with their QAQC.
- Survey moisture, to convert wet tonnes to dry tonnes.
- Discount rate and valuation date, from Management Control.
- Declaration of the real or nominal basis of the model's price deck.
Extends the scope
- Fleet and dispatch cycles, to trace misdirected material.
- Actual plant throughput by shift.
- Existing polygons for waste dumps and stockpiles.
- History of previous periods, to calibrate the baseline faster.
Before promising reconciliation
We run the measurability test on your actual model. If the phase footprint is only a few multiples of the block size, we tell you before selling, not after installing.
Setup integrations
Every site runs its own systems. These connections are integrated and configured as part of setup, based on what the operation already uses:
- Corporate directory and SSO (Active Directory, Okta or another).
- Dispatch and fleet management system.
- Plant SCADA or historian.
- ERP and Management Control.
These are not off-the-shelf connectors. Each one is built against the system the mine already has, and its effort is sized during setup. That is why the first pilot starts with files only.
It starts with files, not connectors
The first reconciliation does not wait for a systems integration. It is built from files the mine already knows how to export from the software it uses. This is what happens, in order, and who does each part.
Scope is agreed
Mine and Argus Mine
One phase of the mine is chosen and its coordinate system (UTM zone) is fixed. Starting with one phase keeps the data work bounded.
Block model
Resource geology
Exported to CSV with the columns of a template the platform provides: block position and size, density, grades and NSR per block. It is loaded once per model version.
Designs and surveys
Planning and Survey
Short-term designs in DXF and as-built surveys in DXF or GeoTIFF, per period. They are uploaded from each period's loading screen.
Plant and economic assumptions
Plant and Management Control
The feed tonnage measured at the plant is entered per period. The discount rate and the valuation date are configured once.
Measurability test
Argus Mine
Before committing to results we check, on the real model, that each period's advance can actually be measured at that model's resolution.
First reconciliation
Argus Mine
The loaded history is reconciled and, from there, every new period. The result comes in tonnes, in dollars and in the 3D viewer.
If the mine runs grade control, blast-hole samples come in as CSV with their QAQC flag. Nobody has to deliver the satellite imagery: the platform downloads it from public sources.
Where the time really goes
Uploading a file takes minutes. What takes time is making the data comparable, and that depends on how each mine keeps it. This is where the work concentrates:
A single coordinate system. Design, survey and block model must arrive in the same UTM zone before they can be compared.
The block model format. Every modelling package exports its own way. It has to be brought to the template's columns, with the NSR per block the mine itself calculated.
Different rhythms. Design and survey are not always updated together. Periods that bring one and not the other are read by phase, not one by one.
An independent plant measurement. If plant tonnage is computed from the same geometry as mine tonnage, comparing them says nothing. It has to come from a real feed measurement.
What is missing gets flagged, not filled in. An economic assumption or an assay that does not exist stays empty and marked. Completing it is up to the mine.
That is why the timeline of each setup is estimated after reviewing that mine's data, not before.
What Argus Mine does NOT do
An audit product that overstates its scope does not survive the first technical review. These limits are deliberate, and worth knowing before comparing against your internal model.
Does not classify resources or reserves
Measured, indicated and inferred — or proven and probable — are the resource geologist's responsibility, in their own software. Argus Mine provides the production evidence that classification needs to stand over time.
Does not sub-block or regularize to SMU
Sub-celling and re-blocking to the size the equipment can actually select are applied when the model is built, in the client's software. Argus Mine consumes the model as it arrives.
Does not calculate NSR from scratch
NSR per block is an input, calculated by your modelling software with its own price deck. Argus Mine aggregates it and reconciles it against what was executed.
Does not apply empirical contact dilution
There is no X% “skin” calibrated by equipment reach: dilution comes from actual geometry. If your reconciliation uses an empirical factor, the numbers won't match — and that difference is information.
Does not replace your planning software
Argus Mine doesn't design phases or estimate grades. It connects to what you already have and reconciles the result.
Requires an independent plant measurement
Without measured crusher or mill feed, F2 cannot be interpreted — and the system flags it as such instead of reporting a reassuring 1.000.
The first pilot
One phase of the mine and three months, with success criteria agreed before starting.
- With the data the mine already produces.
- No new equipment or sensors.
- No permanent staff on site.
How much value is your mine losing today?
Every day a deviation goes undetected, unexplained or unresolved, the value at risk keeps growing. Start by seeing it.