Open systems standards for computing in the mining industry

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 93, No. 1042, 2000

P.F. Knights, Mining Centre, Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile L.K.Daneshmend, Noranda/Falconbridge Chair in Mine-Mechanical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Key issues in managing information systems in the minerals industry will likely continue to be those relating to the integration and interoperability of disparate systems. This paper argues that, in order to harness the promised benefits of information technologies, the mining industry should adopt a set of open systems standards to define data formats and protocols for seamless data exchange. This is in direct contrast to the present situation where mining equipment, software and instrument suppliers rigidly adhere to proprietary standards for fear of losing competitive advantage. Benefits to the mining sector resulting from the adoption of such standards would be: the provision of near-time data for executive decision support, and the freedom to choose best technologies. The principal benefits to the leading mining software suppliers will be increased market share as a result of Òcaptive sitesÓ converting to open systems standards. Examples are given of open systems standards developed for related industries such as the Petroleum Open Systems Corporation (POSC) and the Machinery Information Ma

Mots Clés: Data warehouse, Information systems, Mine management, Open systems.