John Vann Presents in CRC ORE Annual Assembly 2011

“Leading resource and geostatistics consultants Quantitative Group (QG) joined CRC ORE in September and have enthusiastically embraced the collaborative aspect of the Centre with extensive participation in both research programs and CRC ORE events. Two of QG’s directors, John Vann and Scott Jackson, have contributed significantly as mentors for Program 3: Resource Evaluation by working with Program Leader Professor Rodney Wolff to guide the cornerstone project’s objectives. As part of their contribution, QG are also providing their proprietary QISK software as the computing environment on which to build the integrated mine planning evaluation platform.

In the past year QG have presented a number of tailored training programs to CRC ORE research participants including lectures on geostatistics, mine evaluation and scenario planning. Dr. Sorousha Moayer (also of QG) has provided demonstrations of the QISK software to an audience of QUT and UQ researchers and PhD students. Sorousha will be providing more in depth training for key researchers in coming months

At the CRC ORE Annual Assembly John Vann gave an engaging overview of Program 3 in the context of scenario planning, outlining how the program’s new approaches to resource evaluation seek to generate decisions that are more robust under a variety of alternative futures. The QISK platform will provide a user friendly front end and pragmatic linking architecture for the sophisticated models developed by the project, enabling rapid scenario based decision making.

At a recent chance meeting with Federal Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson, John took the opportunity to raise awareness of CRC ORE’s activities and promote the CRC program’s engagement with industry.

CRC ORE looks forward to Quantitative Group’s work with Program 3 and the broader CRC ORE portfolio in the coming year, and the potential for exciting advances in resource evaluation from the program.”

CRC ORE newsletter.

HighGrade Interviews Principal John Vann

In a recent interview, “A Measured Approach”, HighGrade spoke to Principal John Vann:

“The core philosophy of QG revolves around two propositions.  First,we want to employ the best people {which} requires flexibility and good conditions. For people joining QG in the geostats area, there is nowhere they can go and work with a   larger team of specialist people. Plus we have a commitment to research and development and pursuit of new approaches that is exciting for the team.” To read the full article click here.

QG ranked 'best niche/specalised services consultant' in survey

“Quantitative Group is among a host of smaller firms run by respected, experienced industry people who invariably worked for one of the big consulting groups at one stage.”

HighGrade is Australasia’s weekly online mining magazine delivering to readers the high-grade cut of mining industry news from around the region, and the globe. A recent survey by the magazine identified QG as the best niche/specialised services consultant. To view article click here.

QG and JKTech Form Strategic Alliance

QG and JKTech announce the formation of a strategic alliance combining the skills of the world’s leading ore characterisation and process improvement organisation with those of the industry’s best applied geostatistics, risk analysis and technical training  experts. QG and JKTech have joined forces to deliver geometallugical solutions including: Training and skills development; and Geometallurgical consulting;

As the technology transfer company for the Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI), JKTech has access to leading edge technologies and methodologies. JK-Tech offers a range of products and services including Consulting, Specialist Equipment and Software, Metallurgical Laboratory Services and Professional Development. 

JKTech deals with customers around the globe and our clients range from large mining consortiums to engineering and technology solutions providers to small businesses within the minerals industry.

Scenario Based Project Evaluation

QG have developed an integrated risk-based mining project evaluation tool to rapidly assess the potential value and risk of a wide range of business strategies. Ideally suited for Strategic Planning, SBPE combines the richness of probablistic resource characteristisation with multiple mining and economic strategies to evaluatethe production and cash flow outcomes for new or existing projects.

Conventional project evaluation models do not take into account both spatial variability and temporal scales and therefore many business critical constraints are not identified. This can lead to poor design decisions that require massive and ineffectve capital modifications after commissioning. QG’s approach breaks this paradigm and allows a realistic evaluation of business performance taking into account mission critical constraints. A conventional approach based on average mining block grades and average monthly throughput rates may fail to hit production or commercial constraints. The SBPE approach reduces the scale granularity of the evaluation revealing the underlying variability that the mining and ore treatment processes must deal with. Hitting constraints on a daily basis means capacity loss that cannot be recovered.

Scenario Based Project Evaluation can also provide insight into the deliverability of any business plan or budget. Business leaders can use this approach to quantify the likelihood of achieving or exceeding a given plan or failing to achieve planned targets. The likelihood of success of one plan can be compared to another allowing planners and managers to clearly outline the associated resource and reserve risk.