Interoperability in the Australian Mining Industry AUSIndustry Workshops Executive Briefing Part 2 Lesley Wyborn Geoscience Australia 22 June 2005

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Outline: Interoperability in the Australian Mining Industry 1.Revision: What is interoperability 2.Placer Dome case history 3.Runge case history 4.Other industry needs 5.Where to next? 6.Key take home message

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Acknowledgements – pt 1 The work to be presented in this workshop has been funded by the: 1. Commonwealth  AUSIndustry Innovation Access Program (IAccP)  AUSIndustry Innovation Access Fora Program (IAF)  Geoscience Australia  CSIRO 2. State  Mineral Resources Tasmania  Geoscience Victoria  NSW Department of Mineral Resources  Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines  Northern Territory Geological Survey  Western Australia Department of Industry and Resources  Primary Industry and Resources South Australia 3. Industry  Minerals Council of Australia  Social Change Online  Fractal Technologies 4. All of the Above  Predictive Minerals Discovery CRC (pmd*CRC)

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Acknowledgements – part 2 Andrew Scott of Placer Dome Jane Kato of Runge Colleagues of CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and Social Change Online who never gave up………………………….

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Setting the context for this paper Interoperability represents perhaps the most significant paradigm shift in how data and information are managed and utilised since the emergence of the Internet Neil Williams CEO Geoscience Australia & Chair Australian Government Spatial Policy Executive Interoperability: responding to national Drivers. OSDM conference on Interoperability October

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 What is interoperability? "capability to communicate, execute programs, or transfer data among various functional units in a manner that requires the user to have little or no knowledge of the unique characteristics of those units“ Source: OGC Abstract Specification Topic 12: Services. Derived from ISO My stuff operates with your stuff and I don’t give a damn where it is, how it works and what the format is Where stuff = digital computers programs data etc Lesley’s definition

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Caveat The work to be presented is the result of a test bed. Participants should only act on the presentations and technical advice after independent consideration of their own particular circumstances.

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 The role of AUSIndustry The Test bed demonstrator was developed under an AUSIndustry Innovation Access Program (IAccP) grant led by the Minerals Council of Australia, CSIRO, GA and the pmd*CRC. Geoscience Australia and all State and Territory Geological Surveys funded the building of a demonstrator of real time interoperability between GA, SA and WA The current AUSIndustry Innovation Access Fora (IAF) grant is to hold workshops in every capital city to  showcase interoperability - what it is and how Australian Industries can benefit from it  Install the test bed on the remaining state surveys  Seek feedback on future directions All results from both projects are available online at http//:

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Where will we be at the end July? June 15 July 28 July 21 June 22 July 14

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Is there a business case for us to continue? At the end of the current Innovation Access Fora grant we will have test bed interfaces between GA and every state and Territory Survey This test bed makes some data accessible by industry from government sources Are there other use cases? Does industry value interoperability? Let us look at two use cases

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Reasons from our letters of support for the Innovation Access Fora Grant – 1 The Geoscience Agencies recognise that significant potential of this technology to deliver strategic geoscience data to the minerals exploration industry David Mason, Chair Chief Government Geologists Committee BHP Billiton is focussed on the utilisation and analysis of geospatial data to provide advice across our global operations in a timely and efficient manner. The ability to obtain these data more readily, and in open exchange formats will increase our efficiency to do what we do best Grant McLatchie, Co-ordinator Business Improvement, GIS, IT & Databases, BHP Billiton

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Reasons from our letters of support for the Innovation Access Fora Grant – 2 io global utilises geochemical data sets from government and the private sector on a daily basis, and improved efficiencies through interoperability would greatly benefit our business Stephen Winter, Managing Director io global In the process of implementing acQuire software throughout the world the implementation personnel have continued to discover significant issues with the transfer and effective use of data between systems. Many issues have been identified including:  Data is invalidated or lost in the transfer process  Metadata … is often lost because it was not convenient to transfer  Unsupportable data conversion tools are constructed to facilitate transfers of data that are part of a critical process Bill Withers, Managing Director, Metech Pty ltd

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Reasons from our letters of support for the Innovation Access Fora Grant – 3 The issue of poor data interoperability and interchange in the exploration and mining industry is widely recognised as a significant barrier to achieving better outcomes – both scientifically and economically, within the industry. As a software vendor, Fractal Technologies is acutely aware of the inefficiencies caused by having to support such a wide range of data formats, which requires us to spend a significant portion of our development resources writing file format translators rather than adding value through the creation of smarter data processing algorithms and data analysis tools Mark Morrison, Technical Director, Fractal technologies Pty Ltd

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Key points from case studies and support letters 1.Show the diversity of use cases for the same data type throughout the mining value chain 2.Show a strong business case for interoperability for management of your data in the external world 3.Show an even stronger business case for interoperability for internal data management 4.Show why standards need to be developed by groups working together as part of a community 5.Highlight the emerging issue that responsibility of data quality becoming a legislative issue

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Standardised XML interfaces will impose quality control by default

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Standardised XML interfaces will impose quality control by default

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 There is a clear need to go further What are our options? Introducing the AUSIndustry Industry Cooperative Innovation Program (ICIP) Announced 2 June 2005 Round 1 applications due 25 August

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 The AUSIndustry Industry Cooperative Innovation Program Is this a viable mechanism for us to proceed? Do we meet the criterion of an Action Agenda? Are we an Innovation Implementation Activity?  The systematic work necessary for installing and establishing tools, processes, systems and services to implement innovation in an industry

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Key initiative and actions: Response to Minerals Exploration Action Agenda – June 2004 Recommended actions  Development and endorse a plan to upgrade and expand the Geoscience portal to include new on- line datasets  Endorse and adopt standards for company exploration data submitted to Mines Departments  Implement web-based services for on-line access  Develop and endorse a plan for implementation of an Australian Earth Science Grid See pdf?CFID=284582&CFTOKEN= pdf?CFID=284582&CFTOKEN=

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What would we do for Industry Cooperative Innovation Program (ICIP)? We could extend the development of production system for the ADX standard beyond just interfacing assay data between the assay laboratories and industry to achieve part of the Minerals Action Agenda for improved access to pre-competitive geoscience information Through ICIP we would expand the framework for this standard to also be one for interfacing assay data between and within government and industry We would develop the means of having this standard used for company exploration data submitted to Mines Departments This standard would be available for internal business use cases The ADX standard would provide a framework for other minerals industry observational data as well as helping establish a viable metadata schema

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Industry Cooperative Innovation Program (ICIP) – the realities 1.We will need cash support from industry for an ICIP grant 2.As several companies are already investing in this technology then if we work together and do it in a partnership we can ensure the standards developed  will suit all your use cases both internal and external;  will involve government, and industry (both large and SME’s; and  will address the bigger picture needs expressed by submissions by industry to the Minerals Exploration Action Agenda 3.The ICIP scheme will leverage the dollars you are currently investing by giving you dollar for dollar return on your investment 4.We will need industry to lead the program 5.Please let us know ASAP if you are interested – remember the 25 August deadline

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Any Mining Company

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Any Mining Company

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 There is no doubt our Interoperability test bed has wider applications – eg it could also facilitate real time Emergency Management Source:

SEEGrid Roadshow 2005 Interoperability represents perhaps the most significant paradigm shift in how data and information are managed and utilised since the emergence of the Internet If you want to know where interoperability is ask the person in front of you if their digital stuff is interoperable with your stuff and then you will know where interoperability is!!! As interoperability is everywhere the standards that underpin it must be developed at the international level All sectors that support the mining industry – government, industry, academic need to work together to develop the required standards As the standards of other disciplines may be standards relevant to the mining industry we need to work in a very wide international forum If we do this then we will develop the standards that underpin developing Australia’s future sustainably Key Take Home Message – realise the dimensions of the bigger picture

Thank You Contact Robert Woodcock CSIRO Phone Contact Lesley Wyborn Geoscience Australia Phone