The Aegis tool developed by software company iRing offers a 3-D environment for underground drill-and-blast design and analytics.

Maptek's managing director Peter Johnson commented: “Aegis brings proven value to an underground operation’s drill-and-blast process, intelligently creating editable drill-and-blast patterns for an entire stope in seconds.

“State-of-the-art blast analysis tools and a fully customisable reporting system allow engineers to design, refine and optimise their drill-and-blast process more effectively and reduce overall material handling costs.”

According to Maptek, users of Maptek Vulcan at underground mines will welcome the next-generation, intelligent rapid ring design functionality and blast analysis tools available in Aegis that complement mine-planning functionality in Vulcan.

Johnson added: “While the partnership is in the early stages, we are already envisioning the development roadmap for integration to include data exchange routines, with the ultimate goal of full integration with the Maptek Workbench, which was delivered alongside Vulcan 10 this year.”