Sudbury-made software allows drill hole logging from anywhere: social networking feature fosters teamwork.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: MINING

David Peres and Rob Patterson are experts in developing software for the mining industry, particularly for drill hole data management. But, through their careers, they quickly found the same problem turned up again and again.

"We visited a lot of client sites and implemented a lot of software solutions, but we were always faced with the challenge of implementing legacy desktop software--stuff that had been created 15, 20 years ago," Peres said.

"We were always living with those issues and problems that come with a piece of software that's that old."

They believed they could create a more up-to-date, efficient program and set out on their own, founding Sudbury-based Minalytix, which offers consulting services and custom software projects. After three years in development, MX Deposit, their cutting-edge core logging application, is now hitting the market.

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MX Deposit is cloud-based software designed to help mining companies manage their drill hole data. Companies purchase a monthly subscription, which includes training, ongoing support, IT costs, and data storage.

Companies aren't obligated to sign up for fixed-term contracts and can opt in or out based on their needs. Peres said it can help a company save money during a downturn when it's not drilling.

"We're allowing people to drop in and out, so if they want to dial down their amount of users, they have control of that," said Peres, president at Minalytix. "They can reduce their costs and better match their software tools to the actual work that's happening."

Product manager David Kerr said because the service operates from the cloud, users don't have to be desk-bound to use it.

"One of the big differentiators that we're bringing to the market by having MX Deposit living in the cloud and living online is that it's accessible from anywhere," Kerr said.

People working from a core shack in a remote corner of the world, for example, can input data into the system. At the same time, a company executive can log in at any time to see real-time progress--right from an office in downtown Toronto. The service will even work with a very low bandwidth, he noted.

An activity feed that works like "Facebook for mining" is designed to engage people in the project they're working on.

Users can post photos...