Datamine Mine Planning Software
Datamine International was founded in 1981 by Peter Stokes and Stephen Henley to develop and market an integrated system of geological and mining software. The initial version was released in 1983, largely based on the British Geological Survey G-EXEC geological data handling system. It was written in Fortram 77 and used an early relational database framework. It was designed to operate within the constraints of microcomputers running the CP/M operating system, and Fortran development language. It was considered to be a product well ahead of its time.
Early development of an industry leading block modelling tool by Steve Henley strengthened the Datamine product and company position as a leader in resource modelling and mine planning technology.
By 1993 the company had grown to 30 staff worldwide. Its success was recognised by Queen’s Awards for Export in 1989 and Technological Achievement in 1990. It forged commercial relationships with several major mining groups as preferred supplier on both a cost and technical basis.
Power users leveraged Datamine’s functional capability by writing extensions using the Datamine scripting tools, entrenching them as loyal supporters and helping Datamine leverage the productivity of its users and customers.
In the early 1990’s Datamine was revitalised with the release of a new user interface and graphics front end, Guide, which was further enhanced and released as Studio in 1995.
In 2011 the company was acquired by Canadian company CAE, who have progressively replaced the ‘Datamine’ branding by ‘CAE Mining’. However, the Datamine trademark is still owned by CAE. CAE was founded in 1947 (as Canadian Aviation Electronics Ltd) and is headquartered in Canada. It has around 8,000 employees’ worldwide, customers in more than 190 countries and annual revenues over C$2b. It is a global leader in modelling, simulation and training for civil aviation, defence with never activities in healthcare and mining. The company employs approximately 8,000 people at more than 100 sites and training locations in approximately 30 countries. At the time of the acquisition CAE reported that it saw synergies in its simulators, software, course ware and training services; working together to advance the efficiency and safety of mine operations.
In July 2015 Datamine was sold by CAE to Canadian software company Constellation Software, where it is planned to operate with Constellation’s Vela software division. At the time of the acquisition Constellation’s website stated that it had 9,200 employees and US$1.6b of revenues.
Vendor Details
Constellation Software Inc.
#1200 – 20 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON M5C 2T6
CANADA
Tel: (416) 861-2279
Fax: (416) 861-2287
