Whitehaven Coal is considered one of the largest independent coal producers in Australia, and the global demand for Australian coal is only continuing to gain steam.

Senior Geobank data management specialist Ibo Mango said Geobank provided an important tool for coal miners to hone, manage and direct their exploration and production processes.

MICROMINE officials noted that Whitehaven selected Geobank to give it a flexible data-management solution, and as such the system has been adapted to suit Whitehaven's specific workflow requirements including data collection, validation and depth adjustment, browsing and advanced reporting needs.

"Problems with inaccurate data are often invisible. Loss of data, poor accessibility or quality control issues can cost millions of dollars and cause inaccurate decision-making, especially in a high-yield sector like coal," Mango said.

"Geobank's fully customisable solution provided Whitehaven with extended functionality designed specifically for their exploration and mining needs … [and provided] specialised utilities for displaying and managing drillhole data."

Geobank integrates the Australian CoalLog Standard, which was introduced in 2012; prior to the standard's introduction there were 30 different data formats and over 100 data code translation tables used to capture geological and geotechnical data.

Whitehaven Coal produced 16 million tonnes of coal last year.