Seequent Evo: an evolving ecosystem to enable digital transformation

Penny will share Seequent’s vision for the future, which is a connected environment ready to meet emerging data challenges. Seequent Evo is an ecosystem where you can access a toolbox of Seequent cloud applications, desktop applications, micro-services and API’s. It offers seamless connections to world-leading geoscience and engineering solutions and services.

Overview

Video Transcript

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(bright music)

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<v Penny>Hello everybody</v>

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and thank you for joining us today.

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My name is Penny Swords and I am the director of Evo,

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which is what I’m going to talk to you about today.

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Seequent Evo is an evolving ecosystem

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to enable digital transformation.

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Before we move into the presentation,

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I’d just like to make a statement

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of disclaimers and confidentiality.

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I’d like to mention that this presentation

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is for informational purposes only,

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and is not a commitment to deliver specific functions

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or features.

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The world is shifting its focus to green energy,

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to combat climate change

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and this leads to a heightened demand on the mineral sector.

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The World Bank Group

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estimates that the production of minerals such as graphite,

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lithium, and cobalt

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could increase by nearly 500% by 2050

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to meet the growing demand for clean energy technology.

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Tesla has estimated that by 2030 there’ll be producing

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20 million cars a year.

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And this alone puts a huge amount of demand on resources,

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such as lithium, nickel, copper, graphite and cobalt.

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Quoting from an investors conference late last year

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Elon Musk says,

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“I just like to re-emphasize any mining companies out there,

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“please mind more nickel wherever you are in the world,

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“please mind more nickel.

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“Tesla will give you a giant contract

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“for a long period of time,

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“if you mind nickel efficiently

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“and in an environmentally sensitive way.

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“Now hopefully this message goes out

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“to all the mining companies please get nickel.”

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But it isn’t just Tesla, by 2030 Volkswagen

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also plans to have 70% of its car sales

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shift to electric vehicles.

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Volvo will have a 100% of its fleet fully electric

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and general motors will have a 100%

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of their fleet fully electric by 2035.

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Government incentives and tightening CO2 emissions

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targets driving the automakers to release electric vehicles

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more than the customers are actually demanding them.

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And the demand will not only come from electric vehicles,

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increased use of electric vehicles

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leads to increase electricity to power them.

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And as the world moves towards clean energy sources,

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such as solar power and wind farms,

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this leads to an increase in minerals, such as copper, zinc,

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aluminum and silver, just to name a few.

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Coupled with the increased demand

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is the challenge faced by mining exploration

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that resources are becoming harder to find.

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They are deeper underground, undercover or in remote areas.

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Geologists can no longer rely on traditional methods

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for mineral targeting.

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And the industry is starting to turn to data and AI

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to assist in this mineral exploration.

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The world economic forum lists the social contract

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for mining as one of the top trends shaping the industry

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of the mining industry.

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Creating real benefits for communities near mine sites

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will be key for successful new projects.

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Obtaining the license to operate from local communities

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has actually been a challenge for the mining industry

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in recent years.

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Many proposed projects have been rejected

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and operations have been disrupted by protests.

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There is an increased pressure from governments, investors,

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and society for mining organizations

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to mine in an environmentally responsible way.

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Mining is currently responsible for four to seven percent

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of greenhouse gas emissions globally.

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Under the 2015 Paris agreement,

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195 countries pledged to limit global warming

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to well below two degrees Celsius.

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And ideally not more than one and a half degrees

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above the preindustrial levels.

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A McKinsey report says that the mining industry

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has only just begun to set emission reduction goals.

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Current targets published by mining companies

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range from zero to 30% by 2030,

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which is far below the Paris agreement goals.

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Mines theoretically can decarbonize

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excluding fugitive methane through operational efficiency,

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electrification and renewable energy use.

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Capital investments are required to achieve

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most of the de-carbonization potential,

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but certain measures such as the adoption of renewables,

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electrification and operational efficiency

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are economical today for many mines.

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The response to these trends

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leads to a much needed digital transformation

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within the mining sector,

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and this is not a new concept.

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Some mining companies are already looking towards

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digital transformation initiatives

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in order to address these trends.

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At the prospecting and exploration stage

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the use of AI for targeting is increasing.

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AI helps mining companies organize,

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understand and make optimal decisions

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on the vast amounts of data collected.

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Use of drones for surveying work is increasing,

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which improves data collection through AI technology,

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built into the drone to better understand the environment

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and terrain as well as reducing labor costs.

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There’s an opportunity to improve operations

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and drive cost efficiency

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through the use of automation technology

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within a producing mine such as autonomous vehicles,

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drillers and haulage systems.

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Data lies at the heart of all of these trends.

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Vast amounts of data

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is collected across the mining value chain.

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However, after speaking to many customers,

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we have discovered there is still a big challenge

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within the industry that needs to be addressed.

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Many niche applications exist within the industry

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that solve specific problems related to data capture

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and analysis.

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Within the large mining organizations,

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different applications are used at different sites

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to perform the same tasks,

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which lead to multitude of applications

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across the organization

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and ultimately leading to many data silos.

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Alongside the data silos,

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integrating the data is a challenge.

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The lack of common file format standards across the industry

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and a common platform,

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leaves the geo scientists with a lot of manual tasks

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in their day to convert files into a usable format

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in order to be integrated into the required workflow.

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With data moving in and out of various cloud applications

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and desktop applications,

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plus crossing the parts of many geo scientists,

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the audit trail of the data is often lost.

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Once data has been imported into another application

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after a manual conversion,

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how do you know who created the data and when?

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Is it the latest version of that piece of data,

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or has the creator of the data made an update?

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Reconciliation of the data across the mining value chain

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from the geologic model to the resource

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or economic model to the reported results

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in a timely and automated manner is often a challenge.

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As mining companies move into digital transformation

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and the digital age,

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they know they need to start adopting AI technologies

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and advanced analytics techniques

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in order to meet the challenges

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described on the earliest slide.

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However, how do they keep up with emerging methods

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used in this space and how do you keep all of your data

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in one place?

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An access to data is key.

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How do you even know what data is available

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when it is scattered across siloed applications

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and on employees desktops.

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There’s a number of steps that need to occur

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in order to address these data challenges,

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to allow mining companies, to be able to truly optimize

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and automate their workflows.

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To ensure a fast and informed decision making process,

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all stakeholders in the project,

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whether call loggers, modelers,

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resource managers, engineers,

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or third parties such as consultants

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need to have access to the latest data

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in as near real time as possible.

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Everyone needs to work from a single source of truth

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to ensure robust results

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that allow you to take the next steps

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in the development of your project.

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However, more often than not

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data is scattered over multiple servers,

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external hard drives, computers,

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and even inside people’s minds.

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This is a problem as vital information is inaccessible

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when needed or available in a format

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that doesn’t suit the needs

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of the modeler or decision-makers.

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In a situation such as this,

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the modeling process is highly ineffective

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and overall productivity suffers time and money is lost.

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Silos don’t exist

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purely because of the lack of the data organization,

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silos also exist across geo science disciplines.

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One of the initial steps

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in overcoming this siloed way of working

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is to increase collaboration among the disciplines.

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For example, combining geophysics, geology and geo technical

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provides subsurface teams a holistic way

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to approach their domain,

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creating a holistic model or digital twin.

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The result is cross-discipline workflows

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that deliver a much needed integration

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and lay the groundwork for seamless interoperability

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within teams.

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However, probably the collaboration amongst disciplines

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is not enough, there needs to be a collaboration

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amongst all industry vendors.

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As software vendors,

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we have to help our customers manage their data,

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improve workflows and automate processes.

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There is no single vendor that can do everything

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across the whole mining value chain.

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And if they were, I would struggle to find a customer

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that would like to be tied to a single vendor,

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to provide their whole workflow.

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Our customers want the freedom

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to mix and match their solutions

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to suit the needs of their business.

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It is our role to ensure that the data is connected

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interoperable and has seamless data interfaces.

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And this is where true value comes to our customers

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and comes to the industry as a whole,

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as Aristotle states,

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“The value of the whole

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“is greater than the sum of its parts.”

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And this is our vision at Seequent.

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We are extending our solutions

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beyond solving model management,

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beyond solving stakeholder engagement,

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and beyond solving data management.

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Our vision is to provide connected solutions

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in an environment which enables you to work seamlessly

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across multiple workflows and solve problems in the moment.

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We are calling this an ecosystem,

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it is an ecosystem because it isn’t a single platform,

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product or solution.

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It is an ecosystem that is made up of cloud solutions

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and micro capabilities, APIs, and desktop products.

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We call the Seequence ecosystem Seequent Evo.

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Seequent Evo is a living ecosystem.

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It is evolving and in some parts already available today.

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Let me explain what I mean by that

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in a little more detail.

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Seequence Evo encompasses our existing

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and future cloud applications, APIs, and micro capabilities

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and connects to our established desktop solutions

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such as leapfrog, Oasis Montaj and Geo studio.

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It is a connected ecosystem of solutions

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which enable our customers to work seamlessly

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across their workflow in order to solve problems

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in the moment.

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We’re offering our customers an open connected solution

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that allows them to pick the pieces they need

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big or small as it’s no longer one size fits all.

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And it’s not a single platform or solution in itself,

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it’s an evolving ecosystem.

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Seequent Evo will enable seamless connections

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with other world-leading geo science

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and engineering solutions

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to create an environment for data exchange and integration.

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Our first integration to market will be MX deposit

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for drill hole data management.

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If you’d like to see an example of this integration,

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we’re going to demonstrate an early prototype

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during a webinar on Wednesday, the 10th of March

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at 12 o’clock Eastern time.

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To register for this webinar,

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please visit seequent.com/pdeck.

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Seequence Central,

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which many of you are actively using already

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is an example have how Seequence Evo’s micro capabilities

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are bundled together and offered as a solution.

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Seequence Central is a data and many sorry,

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a data and model management solution

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and it addresses some of the challenges

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that I highlighted earlier on.

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It can dynamically link to leapfrog and Oasis Montaj.

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And in the near term release,

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will also be able to connect to geo studio.

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Central is made up of a set of micro capabilities

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that facilitate safe and user defined user storage

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in the cloud,

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web visualization for active reviewing purposes in 3D,

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version tracking and comparing tools

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and interactive notifications.

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Globally we are moving into a new era

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with a global shift in government initiatives,

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combat climate change and an increased use of technology.

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Greater pressure is being placed on the mining industry.

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In parallel to this mining organizations

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are faced with the challenge of deposits,

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being harder to find harder to mine

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operating in a socially and environmentally responsible way

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plus the increasing pressure to reduce costs,

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there’s an increasing need for digital transformation

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to occur across the whole mining value chain.

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Data is at the heart of all decisions.

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And one of the biggest challenges

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that mining organizations face

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is integrating that data and moving data seamlessly

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throughout workflows.

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Our goal for Seequent Evo is improved efficiencies

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and optimization across workflows

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in the whole mining value chain,

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allowing for more effective and collaborative work

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and to create an open and connected ecosystem

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for geo science data management analysis and visualization,

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but it’s right sized for the individual

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or organization and the work that they need to complete.

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Thank you for your time today.

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I’m actually here live and if you have a question,

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you can pop it into the questions window.

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Joining me here today is Steven Donovan

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and Steven is a central technical specialist

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based in Vancouver and is going to help me

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answer the questions.

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<v Steven>Thank you, Penny.</v>

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Yep so if anyone has any questions,

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just place them into the chat box

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and we’ll be happy to answer.

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There’s a couple here now.

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The first is on the timeline.

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When can we expect to see some of these tools released?

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<v Penny>That’s a really good question.</v>

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So our first integration,

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We’ll actually let me take a step back.

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Central’s already available today.

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Michael D’Souza who is the Central sales lead

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is on the phone here today.

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If you have any questions around that,

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or you can reach out to him separately

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and Central is available today, that solve a lot of the,

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or some of the challenges I already talked about

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in regards to our APIs.

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The first API will be available later this year.

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And our first integration using that API

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will also be available,

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which is MX deposit around mid August timeframe.

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<v Penny>Brilliant, Penny.</v>

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And then how are we integrating with other applications

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on the market?

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<v Penny>That’s a really good question.</v>

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So, we have built relationships with a lot of

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other vendors out there and are actively talking to them

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about using our APIs to integrate into the Evo ecosystem,

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but generally it needs to,

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there needs to be a push from our customers

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to get all of our vendors creating open

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and connected environments for everybody to talk to.

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The APIs will also be available for our customers

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to be able to build your own integrations.

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So where there’s none opportunity for the vendors

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to integrate together,

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the customers have an opportunity

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or consultants have an opportunity

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to create that integration themselves.

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<v Steven>That’s great thank you so much Penny.</v>

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I don’t see any more questions here coming up,

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so I’ll pass it back to you to round it up.

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<v Penny>That’s great. thank you everyone for joining.</v>

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(bright music)