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This software and documentation is proprietary to Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd.
Surpac Minex Group Pty Ltd publishes this documentation for the sole use of Minex licenses.
Without written permission you may not sell, reproduce, store in a retrieval system, or transmit
any part of this documentation. For such permission, or to obtain extra copies please contact
your local Surpac Minex Group Office.
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this manual, we assume no
responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damage resulting
from the use of the information contained herein.
All brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.
This manual has been designed to provide a practical guide to the many uses of the software.
The manual describes one way of using the software; these instructions are by no means
exhaustive. However, it provides a starting point for new users and a good overview for
existing users by demonstrating how to use many of the functions in Minex. If you have any
difficulties or questions while working through this manual, please contact your local Surpac
Minex Group Office.
Contributors
Katherine Kelso
James Willoughby
Some sections of this tutorial were copied from the Minex online help. The contributions of the
help authors are also gratefully acknowledged.
Product
Minex v5.3
Core Tutorial i
Table of Contents
Core Tutorial ii
Task: Import Survey Data .................................................................................................... 45
Task: Create a Mask to Show an Area for Exploration ........................................................ 47
Plan and Section Mounts ...................................................................................................... 51
Mounts Control Panel........................................................................................................... 51
Task: Create a Section Showing a Seam Cross-section ..................................................... 52
Task: Create a Plan Showing Contours for Topography ..................................................... 62
Grids ....................................................................................................................................... 65
Task: Create a Topographic Grid Using Borehole Collars................................................... 65
Task: Create a Weathering Grid .......................................................................................... 70
Triangles ................................................................................................................................. 71
Task: Volume Calculation .................................................................................................... 71
Summary ................................................................................................................................ 78
Core Tutorial iii
About This Document
Overview
This document is designed to give you an overview of Minex computerized mine planning software. It
explains basic concepts that you must understand in order to use the more advanced features of
Minex.
This tutorial uses a set of files contained in a data set that is copied to your computer when Minex5
software is installed.
More detailed training information is available within the software and from your local Surpac Minex
Group Support Office. When the software has been installed you can see additional training
resources and help documentation in the Help menu.
Requirements
Before proceeding with this tutorial, you should ensure you have the following items:
1. Minex 5.2 software, and the tutorial data provided on the installation disc, installed on your
computer.
You should place the sentinel in an appropriate port. You can enter the token number when you
license Minex (See Licensing Minex).
Objectives
By working through this document, you should be able to:
• Perform queries.
• Digitise a string.
Document Conventions
Typographical Conventions
Some text in this manual has special formatting to identify it as a particular element of information.
The following list describes the different formats and their meanings:
• A menu option, tab, button, check box, list, option button, spin box, text
box or icon.
UPPER Keystrokes. When a keystroke is described, the key is shown in this font. For
CASE more information on keystroke conventions, see below.
Mouse Conventions
The mouse is the pointing device you use to select objects and menu items, and to click the buttons
that you see on screen. If a particular mouse button is not specified, use the left button. When a
different button should be used, this is specified in the text. You can rotate or press the wheel button
on the mouse. In this manual, the following terms are used to describe actions with the mouse.
Action Description
Click Quickly press and release the left mouse button without moving the mouse.
Right-click Press and release the right mouse button without moving the mouse.
Double-click Without moving the mouse, click the left button twice rapidly.
Drag and drop <an With the pointer over the object, press and hold down the left mouse button
object> to select the object. Move the mouse until the pointer is in the position you
want and then release the mouse button.
Drag Press and hold down the left mouse button. Then move the mouse in the
direction that the text specifies.
Right-drag Press and hold down the right mouse button. Then move the mouse in the
direction that the text specifies.
Rotate Use your finger to make the wheel button roll. Move it forward, that is in a
clockwise direction, or backward, that is in an anticlockwise direction.
Windows and dialogue boxes contain several elements that enable users to carry out particular
operations. Here is an example of a dialogue box.
Spin box Text box with up and down arrows that you
click to move through a set of fixed values.
You can also type a valid value in the box.
Overview of Minex
Minex is a mine planning software package for coal and other stratigraphic deposits such as
phosphate, zinc, bauxite, iron ore and platinum.
It is designed to allow surveyors, geologists and engineers to work together effectively throughout the
life of a mine.
Minex’s mine design functions are integrally linked to a geology model so that mine designs can align
with economic or geological considerations such as depth, strip ratio or optimum pit limits. The
reserves and quality data are stored in a database for fast access, editing, manipulation, and
reporting.
Installing Minex
Do these steps to install Minex for the first time or to install a newer version of the software.
If Minex is already installed, you will see an icon on your desktop similar to this:
If you already have an older version of Minex installed, it is your choice whether you uninstall it before
installing the new version; you can run both versions. If you do uninstall Minex, any data files that you
created will remain stored on your computer.
1. If you have a Minex installation CD, insert it into your disc drive; if you have a Minex installation
file, double-click it in Windows Explorer.
3. Unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, click Next to accept the default location.
Otherwise, click Browse, and navigate to the new location.
4. Click Ok.
5. Continue clicking Next until you see the installation progress bar.
When installation is complete, a new Minex icon appears on the desktop, similar to this:
Starting Minex
The first time you start Minex, you may have to answer several prompts to successfully start the
program. After you have started Minex for the first time and then made sure that you have licensed it
correctly, you can start Minex just by double-clicking the icon and clicking Accept.
3. If you see the Licence Request dialogue box, leave None selected and click OK.
Note: See Licensing Minex for information about recording licence details in Minex. You can do
this after Minex has started.
Licensing Minex
If you have no licence, you can run Minex, plot geometry data and display grids, but you cannot save
any data. This enables you to gain a general impression of Minex if you have a demo CD, for
example. However, to access the full functionality of Minex, you must licence it.
This task explains how to set Minex to use a local licence. For advice on setting up a network licence,
ask your system administrator.
Note: If you need to get a licence, contact the Minex Support Office.
Note: If you have to licence Minex on several computers, the fastest way to do it is to licence Minex
on one computer by doing the following steps and then copy the <Minex install
folder>\etc\license\tokens.dat file from that computer to all the other ones.
1. Insert the sentinel in a USB or parallel port on your computer (depending on the type of
sentinel).
2. Start Minex.
3. From the File menu, select Licensing.
The modules that your licence allows you to use are selected.
6. Click Ok.
Tip: If you change the data and you want to start again, you can copy the data sets directly from the
Minex installation CD.
Exiting Minex
To exit Minex, click the red cross in the top right corner or, from the File menu, select Exit.
If you have changed any files without saving them, you see a prompt to save those files.
1. From the File menu, select Project and then Project Manager.
2. Click New.
3. Type the name of the project, for example intro_tutorial and then click OK.
You have now created the project but you have not yet set it to use the data files in a specific
directory.
1. On the left side of the Minex window, click the Filesystems tab.
Tip: If, at any time, the Minex Explorer indicates that the link to the project folder is broken, view the
“broken link” property and open Windows Explorer to check whether the folder exists. The
folder might have been renamed or moved.
If you do not set the local origin, and the true coordinates of your geometry data contain seven digits
before the decimal point (as they do in the Hunter Valley in Australia, for example), the coordinates
could be incorrect by one metre — a significant amount in blast plans.
The distance of the coordinates of your geometry data from the local origin determines the magnitude
of the error:
If the local origin is more than 99,999.99 metres away from the data, Minex will display the message
“warning local origin(x,y) is far from your local origin”.
Before you set the local origin, you should choose some coordinates that are close to your data.
Therefore this task includes some steps for finding some nearby coordinates.
1. On the left side of the Minex application window, right-click the file THEDON.GM3 and click
Open.
The background of the Graphics window will become white when you show some string data.
In some situations, white provides a better contrast for the data; in other situations black is
more suitable. Many if the images in this tutorial are shown with a white background to make
them easier to read in a printed copy of the tutorial.
3. Right-click THEDON.GM3, and click Display.
Note: The first time you do this step, you might have to wait a few moments before the
geometry data appears.
4. Click Query and then click a location, within the Graphics window, in the centre of the geometry
data.
The Output window displays the coordinates of the location where you clicked.
10. Click Close and then click OK in the Information message box.
1. Menu bar.
2. Toolbars.
3. 3D Design tab and Drafting tab.
4. Status bar.
5. Project folder.
6. Minex Explorer.
7. Graphics window.
8. Output window.
Menu Bar
The menu bar contains menus that show a list of commands. You can activate those commands by
clicking them. Using the menu bar is one way of activating commands.
Toolbars
A toolbar is a group of icon buttons. If you move the pointer over the double lines to the left of a group
of icons, you see the name of the toolbar. For example, the Plot Modes toolbar contains 6 icons.
Note: You use the Visualisation tab for advanced tasks that are beyond the scope of this tutorial.
If a menu command is unavailable, it might be because the incorrect tab is active. For example, to
create a plan or a section, you start with 3D data and make the 2D plan or section from it. Therefore,
you need the 3D Design tab (rather than the Drafting tab) to be active when you start creating the
plan or section.
Status Bar
The status bar displays interaction instructions, system status messages, questions and warnings
when you are using Minex.
These messages can prompt you for the next action to perform and give an indication of the mode
you're using.
If Minex does not perform the way you expect, there might be a message in the status bar that
explains the reason.
Project Folder
This folder contains the data files in your project. Any data files that you create are saved to this
location.
There are three tabs at the bottom of the Minex Explorer. Only one of the three tabs is active at any
time.
Tab Contents
Filesystems All the files on your computer’s hard drive and all the
files that are currently “mounted”. See the Minex help
for more information about mounting a file system.
Project <name of Minex project> All the files in the current project directory.
Runtime All the files currently open in Minex. Also lists all the
grid folders, the Mounts Control Panel and the Object
Control Panel. These concepts are explained later in
this tutorial.
If you want to work with files that are currently open (or to find out which files are currently open), the
Runtime tab is very useful. If you want to open a new file that is in your project, the Project <project
name> tab is very useful.
Tip: If you move the cursor over the project’s folder in the Minex Explorer, a ToolTip displays the
project’s path (excluding the drive, which is typically C:).
When you want to select existing strings, edit them and create new strings, you work in the Graphics
window (see Digitising).
If you create plans or sections on different “mounts” (see Plan and Section Mounts), each plan is
displayed on a different Graphics tab. In the example below, a Line Contour – Grid and a Shade
Contour – Grid are displayed. They appear on the Graphics 2 tab and the Graphics 3 tab
respectively. To work on a different plan or section, click its Graphics tab.
Note: If the output window is not visible, select Output Window from the Windows menu.
To save the results of a query, right-click in the Output window, and click Save All Text to File.
To clear the output, right-click in the Output window, and click Clear Output.
Getting Help
The following types of help are available in Minex.
Concepts
Geometry Data
Geometry data is data that relates to geographical positions of interest, including physical features —
such as fences, contours and bodies of water — and intangible concepts such as boundaries and
“masks”. Geometry data is displayed in the Graphics window.
The following image shows an example of some geometry data, specifically water bodies and
contours.
Note: In the image below the contours are shown in orange to make them stand out. Contours might
appear in a different colour on your computer.
In Minex, geometry data is stored in a geometry file. Geometry files have the .GM3 extension.
Geometry data has many uses. For example, you can convert survey data (a type of geometry data)
of a pit to a triangulated surface to calculate the volume of waste and coal between the triangulated
surface and the topography.
A geometry file contains many different types of data, stored in a hierarchy. If you display all the
geometry data in a file, the Graphics window might appear cluttered. When you understand the
hierarchy and you plot geometry data, you can choose the type of data you want to show and hide the
rest.
GM3
The Minex data administrator at your site defines the groups, maps and idents; they are not
hardcoded in Minex. For example, the Ident that you use for contours is not necessarily SCONTOUR;
its name might be CONTOUR or a different name.
Note: For more information about data types within geometry files, see the topics The Geometry File
and Geometry Data Types in the Minex help
A mount is a frame around the area of interest in the Graphics window. It has a size, such as A1,
coordinates that tie it to a location in the world, and a scale, such as 1:10,000, but it does not display
any data by itself. There are two types of mount: plan mount (for drawing plans) and section mount
(for drawing sections).
You could think of a mount as a template, or a frame, that is in a specific geographical location. You
might use the same mount to show 50 different plans, each plan showing something different about
the seams or topography in that area. In Minex, you create plans and sections on mounts; you cannot
create the plan or section until you have a mount to place it on.
The following image shows an empty mount for a plan and then the same mount with a plan,
specifically a “line contour – grid” plan, drawn within it.
Grids
A grid is a virtual surface that represents a geological interface, such as a seam floor or roof
(geological grid), or a geological quality such as ash or sulphur or any other variable that changes
over the X,Y plane (quality grid). Minex uses grids to model ore bodies.
In Minex you can use grids to represent topography, seam roofs, seam floors, seam thicknesses and
also to represent “quality” attributes like ash, sulphur, volatile matter and moisture.
When you “display and open” a grid that is a representation of a surface, it appears as a sheet. For
example, this image shows the TOPS (that is topographical) grid with three grids for the floors of
specific seams beneath it.
In Minex, each grid is stored as a file with the extension .grid in a grid folder. This folder has an
extension of .grd. One grid folder can contain several grids — each grid representing an attribute like
thickness, floor, or roof for a specific seam.
Grids are commonly named using the format <seam name><suffix>. The most common suffixes are:
Suffix Meaning
SF Seam floor
SR Seam roof
ST Thickness
IB Interburden
OB Overburden
AS Ash
RD Relative density
MO Moisture
SE Specific energy
Using this convention, the seam for the seam floor of seam F would be named FSF.
In the Ashes data set, you can see two folders that store grids: MODEL.grd and STRUCTUR.grd.
When you use the gridding commands, you must usually decide whether to work on a grid that is
stored in STRUCTUR.grd or in MODEL.grd.
Note: For more information about grids, see the About Modelling topic in the Minex help.
Triangles
In Minex, a “triangle” is a file that contains a series of adjoining three sided polygons which collectively
represent a surface. Triangles show surface data well; they are suitable for displaying open-pit bench
surfaces where there are sharp discontinuities or breaks in the surface.
For example, in a road cut, a surveyor would survey break lines. This is shown in a section below.
The break lines are A, B, C, D, E, and F.
Here is an example of a triangle file that shows a pit and the surrounding area.
Triangles are useful for volume calculations. One way in which triangles are created is when a
surveyor uploads point data to maintain a pit triangle for use by other people at the mine site. You can
also create triangles from geometry data (or from grids by converting grids to triangles).
Triangles are stored with the .tr5 extension in the Minex project directory.
File Types
You can work with several types of file in Minex. Some that you might use are:
A mount file is not represented by a file; instead you select the plan mount, or section mount, you
want to work with in the Mounts Control Panel (see Mounts Control Panel).
Opening Files
To view the data (such as geometry, grids, triangles, or boreholes) and work with it, the first thing you
need to do is to open the data file. The quickest way to open a file is, with the Project <project
name> tab active, right-click the file in Minex Explorer and select Open.
Minex has different commands to display a file depending on its type and how you want to represent
it. However, for most types of file, you can show it in the Graphics window by right-clicking it and
Note: A situation where you would open a geometry file but not display it, is when you create a plan
or section (see Plan and Section Mounts).
Tip: Dragging some types of file (such as grids and triangles) into the Graphics window is equivalent
to clicking Display.
It is true that you can show geometry files with the Display command. However, if you use the Plot
Geometry Data button on the Plot Modes toolbar , you have more control over which data is
displayed and so you can reduce clutter.
There is no Display command for borehole databases. You can use the Plot 3D Boreholes
command instead.
After you open a file, a red, blue or a black tick icon appears beside the file. If it is a geometry file, you
can choose to open it as a primary file (Open command) or as a secondary file (Open as Secondary
command).
1. If the background for Graphics is not already white, click the Toggle Black/White button.
All objects are removed from the Graphics window and all the files that were displayed are
closed. This is useful when you want to start designing again with an empty Graphics window.
• By double-clicking Visibility for an object in the Object Control Panel to turn off its visibility.
Note: Press CTRL+3 to show the Object Control Panel. For more detailed information about
the Object Control Panel, refer to the Minex help.
Tip: Try changing the transparency of an object to 50 instead of turning its visibility off. This
technique is useful for reducing the prominence of an object without completely hiding it.
The object is removed from the Graphics window. This is useful when you have finished
working with one of the objects that are open but not the others.
The object is removed from the Graphics window and its file is closed. This effectively does the
same thing as removing an object from the Object Control Panel.
The task in this section explained how to navigate using the mouse. Alternatively, there are several
navigation buttons above the Graphics window that you can also use to navigate.
Refer to the topics View Toolbar and 3D Navigation in the Minex help for more information about the
navigation tools.
In addition, when there are unsaved changes Minex displays a disk icon on the geometry file in the
Minex Explorer .
If you understand how the parameters are saved, you can distribute them to other computers
effectively. Parameters are stored in a file with the .mpf extension, for example you might have a file
called Parameters.mpf or ParamsSiteStandards.mpf.
When you have a dialogue box open and you save its parameters, it is stored as an item within the
parameters file. In the example below, the parameters for six dialogue boxes are stored in the
parameters file.
If you right-click an item in a parameters file you see Cut, Copy and Delete commands. You can use
these to move parameters between files. When you right-click a parameters file you see the same
commands and some additional ones such as Rename.
If you do not already have a parameters file, you can create one using the New Wizard as the
following task demonstrates.
Let us say that it is standard practice at your site that when you show numerical data for boreholes,
you rotate the numbers by 20 degrees and also that you show values for borehole seam floors in
orange and seam thickness values in red. You can make it easy for everyone at the site to use these
display standards by saving them in a parameters file and then distributing the parameters file to
those people.
1. From the File menu, select New to open the New Wizard.
Note: You can also use the New Wizard to create a new empty borehole database, geometry
file, reserves database or seam model.
By default, the file name is Parameters.mpf and it will be stored in your project folder. If you
already have a parameters file, the name of the new parameters file is parameters_<next
available number>.mpf.
3. Click Finish.
You have now created a new empty parameters file. Notice that there is a black tick beside the
new parameters file in Minex Explorer indicating that it is open.
Next, show some geometry data so that you know where to create a plan. You will show the
borehole data on the plan.
4. If the 3D Design tab is not already active, click it.
5. Open THEDON.GM3 if it is not already open (that is, if it does not show a tick beside it).
6. Right-click THEDON.GM3 and click Display to show the data in the Graphics window.
10. Click in the Name field, type the plan name, for example A1pit10K, and click OK.
14. Open the borehole database file THEDON.B31 in the Minex Explorer.
15. From the Mounts menu, select Plan and then Borehole Locations.
16. Select the seam SW1.
17. Click Select Variables and select the variables BASERL (the seam floor) and SEAMTH
(thickness).
23. Enter the name BoreholeSS (SS is a naming convention you could use to indicate that the
parameters are site standard parameters) and click OK.
24. Click OK and then Cancel in the Borehole Plan Locations dialogue box.
25. Zoom in.
27. Right-click BoreholeSS and notice that there are commands available to copy or cut the
parameter; you use these when you need to copy or move it to another parameters file.
Note: If you need to move an entire parameters file to another computer, you can copy and paste the
parameters file in Windows Explorer, or in the Filesystems tab.
Performing Queries
The Query tool is located on the Graphics toolbar. You use to answer questions like:
To experiment with the Query tool, open and display a geometry file, click the Query tool button and
then click several times in the Graphics window.
Red text indicates a property whose value you cannot change; blue text indicates a property that you
can change.
Tip: To show properties in a separate window, right-click a file, and click Properties.
Geometry Data
Digitising
The term “digitising” means creating string data. The “digitising options” are the modes you can use
when you create strings.
By becoming familiar with the digitising options you will be able to create strings quickly and
accurately. Often the most efficient way to create a string is to switch between the digitising options
while you are creating the string. For example, if you are creating a “mask” you might use Snap to
Line for part of the string, and then XY and Z to complete the mask.
When you select a map, or a group, you are filtering the geometry data to show only the data
that is in that map or group and in the idents and classes that are below it in the storage
hierarchy (see Structure of the Geometry File).
6. Click Ident.
7. Holding down the CTRL key, select BREAKLIN (break lines) and SCONTOURS (contours).
8. Click OK.
9. Click F to do a “final plot” and then click Cancel in the Plot Geometry Data dialogue box.
Note: For more information, see the topic Plot Geometry Data in the Minex help.
1. Open THEDON.GM3.
You need to have a geometry file open so that you have a place where you can store the
imported survey data.
2. From the File menu, select Import and then Import DXF/DWG.
4. Click beside the Map box, and select the SURVEY map.
The text box should now appear similar to the following image.
7. Click Ok.
8. Click Cancel to close the Import DXF/DWG dialogue box.
A mask is a type of string that is a closed polygon. You can use a mask to represent a dam, lease
boundary or a rehabilitated area or to report volumes and tonnages within the mask.
Note: The topic “The Geometry File” in the Minex help has more information about Structure data
type and masks.
Note: Minex is “measurement-unit independent”. You can enter numbers either in metres or in feet,
as appropriate to your organisation. The following example uses metres as the unit of
measurement.
You have to open a geometry file because the mask that you will create is a string, and you
have to store each string in a geometry file.
You will create the mask so that it follows some features of a topography grid. Therefore the
next step is to show the topography grid
3. Display and open the TOPS_AIR grid, which is in the STRUCTUR.grd folder.
You will store the mask in a location (Group, Map, Ident or Class) within the geometry file.
Therefore, before you create the mask, you must specify where to store it.
Note: If you see the Digitise prompt at any time when you have finished digitising, right-click
and click Cancel. If Minex is in Digitise mode and you select other commands, you might
see unexpected results.
The topography in this data set has an elevation of about 730 metres. So that you can see the
mask above the topography, in this exercise you will specify an elevation of 800.
9. Enter an elevation of 800.
10. Continue clicking along some of the features of the topography, and then click in any two other
locations.
Notice that THEDON.GM3 has a disk icon on top of it in the Minex Explorer to indicate
that you have made changes to the geometry (specifically, you have created a string) but not
yet saved it.
13. Right-click THEDON.GM3 and click Save Geometry File to save it.
You might decide that the exploration area can extend on the left side.
14. Use the Plot Geometry Data dialogue box to plot Masks data only (that is, everything that has
the data type Masks).
15. Click Navigate and zoom in to the bottom of the mask you created.
17. Right-click the point at the bottom of the mask and click Go Point mode.
The red tick indicates the mount that you are currently working with, that is the one on which you are
drafting.
Next open a topography grid to give you some visual reference points when you create the
section line. This time, you will use a menu command so that you can easily specify the colour
of the grid.
2. Open the TOPS_AIR grid:
a. From the Grid menu, select Display.
b. Select the Solid plot style.
c. Select Single colour.
d. Click the colour box and select a light blue colour.
e. Click Ok.
Next create a mount.
3. From the Mounts menu, select Section and then Create.
This is the sheet size you will print the section on.
6. Type 300 in the Lower Z text box.
10. Click Apply to see the section limits in the graphics window.
Note: It is generally true throughout Minex that the Apply button “previews” an operation, and
the Ok button commits the operation.
11. Click Navigate on the toolbar above the Minex Explorer and rotate the view so you can
see the section limits better.
12. Click Ok in the Section – Create dialogue box.
The Mount Save dialogue box prompts you to enter a name for the mount.
13. Enter a name and click Ok.
This example uses a name in the format pit<sheet size><scale>. However, your organisation
might use a different naming convention. You can use eight characters or less for the name.
Notice that the 3D Design tab is currently active. To plot a section you must work on the
Drafting tab. This will happen when you use the Draft on Mount command.
The Drafting tab becomes active and the Graphics window is ready for drafting.
In some situations you might want to see a coordinate grid on top of the section. You can do
this by selecting the Mounts menu, Section and then Coordinate Grid. However, you can
save time by using the icons on the Section toolbar.
18. To show the Section toolbar, right-click in the empty area beside the toolbars that are currently
displayed and click Section, in the list of toolbars, so that it is ticked.
The Section toolbar appears beside or underneath the other toolbars in the toolbar section.
Note: You can use the same technique to display or hide other toolbars. You can see that there
are toolbars for all the activities you can do in Minex.
Note: You can change the grid intervals if the grid appears too compressed or too widely
spread.
d. Click Ok to show the TOPS triangle, as well as the grid, in cross section.
Next show the seams from the borehole. You use the Borehole Seam Cross Section icon to do
so . However, this icon is unavailable and when you click it nothing happens. This is
because you must have a borehole database open to do this operation.
24. Open THEDON.B31 in the Minex Explorer.
At any stage, you can create a permanent copy of the section for later viewing or printing by
using the Graphics Capture command.
28. From the Graphics menu, select Graphics Capture.
29. In the Graphics Capture dialogue box:
a. Select a file type for the saved file, for example PDF.
b. Enter the file name.
c. Remember the location where the file will be saved, that is the folder shown in the Save
in box.
d. Click Save.
33. Zoom the display so that you can see all of the cross-section, and then use the Graphics
Capture command to save the cross-section as seamxsection2.cgm.
Note: CGM is a file format for vector images that has a good capacity to retain its scale and
level of detail.
If you intend to print the seam cross-section, you will use much less ink if you have a white
background.
4. Begin creating a plan mount from the lower left corner of the geometry to the upper right corner:
a. Press CTRL+SHIFT+P (the shortcut for Mounts > Plan > Create).
b. Click Dig.
c. Click in the lower left corner of the geometry and then click in the upper right corner.
d. Enter a scale such as 10000.
5. Click Apply to see, in the graphics window, where the limits of the plan will be.
Later, you might decide to change these parameters slightly. Therefore it might be a good idea
to save the parameters now.
6. Open or create a parameters file:
• If you do not have a parameters file already open, open the one you created in Task:
Create and Save Parameters.
• If there is no parameters file, create a new one using the File New wizard.
11. Right-click beside the toolbars and select Plan so that it is ticked.
16. From the Mounts menu, choose Plan > Line Contour > Grid.
17. Set up the Line Contour parameters as shown below and click Ok.
Grids
1. Clear graphics.
2. Select the 3D Design tab if it is not already active.
3. Open the borehole database THEDON.B31.
c. Click Ok.
Note: If you wanted to create a grid from a geometry file (rather than from borehole collars),
you would select the Use Geometry box.
h. Click Ok and then click Cancel.
i. When you see the prompt to proceed with gridding, click Yes.
j. When you see the prompt to save the grid, click Yes.
k. Save it as NEW-TOPS.
d. Click Ok.
1. Clear graphics.
2. From the Grid menu, select Arithmetic.
3. Select the TOPS grid from the MODEL folder.
4. Enter an Add Constant value of -10
The premise is that the weathering grid is 10 meters below the topography.
5. Click Ok.
6. Click Yes in the prompt to save the grid.
Triangles
If you do not already have a triangle file for the topography you will need to create one. You can
create one from the topography grid.
Tip: Alternatively, if you have survey data of the topography, you can triangulate the survey strings
in the geometry file.
c. Click Ok.
d. Save the triangle as tops when you see the save prompt.
e. Click Cancel to close the Grid to Triangle dialogue box.
3. Display and open tops.tr5 to see what it looks like.
Next create the triangle file for the pit (unless you already have a pit triangle).
4. To create the pit triangle file:
a. Clear the Graphics window.
b. Open THEDON.GM3.
c. F Plot the contours.
The Output window shows the Nett volume the Positive volume and the Negative volume.
The Positive volume is the total volume that is below the tops triangle but above the pit triangle.
However, in some locations the pit triangle is above the tops triangle — this is the Negative
volume. The Nett volume is the difference between the positive volume and the negative
volume.
11. To see where the pit triangle is above the tops triangle, display both triangles.
To get a more accurate volume calculation we will have to define the pit boundary more
precisely.
12. From the Triangle menu, select Edit.
13. Load the pit triangle, select Edit Outside and click Digitize.
14. Digitise around the pit boundary so that the boundary is defined more accurately.
Note: This is an approximate method of defining the pit boundary. When you are working with
your data you would either have a pit boundary already defined or you would spend more
time on defining the boundary precisely.
20. From the Triangle menu, select Volumes and calculate the volume again.
• What the elements of the Minex interface are and what they are for.
• How to control the view of graphical data, including how to zoom and pan.
• How to create plans and sections and save them as graphics captures, or as archives.
• How to create a grid from borehole collar data (using the grid compute function).
Your desktop icon and its properties may look similar to the following image.
A Minex shortcut switch is text that follows minex.exe in the Target field. In the preceding example,
the switch is –java_version 1.6
Switch Description
-java <path> Points to the location of the java runtime environment
on your computer.
-java_version <version_number> Indicates the desired version of Java. For example: -
java_version 1.6
-ecshome <path> Points to the installation directory on your machine.
-user_dir <path> Points to your private user directory.
-lm <licence_manager name> The name of your SSILM licence manager.
-class <class name> The class of your Minex licence. Some classes that you
might use are: Core, Drill&Blast, Survey, Engineering
and Geology.
-Xmx <buffer_size> Specifies the maximum size, in bytes, of the Java
memory allocation pool.
This value must a multiple of 1024 greater than 2MB.
Append the letter k or K to indicate kilobytes, m or M to
indicate megabytes.
The default value is 64MB. Example: -Xmx 128m