Spatial Data Server articles

Note: Spatial Data Server (SDS) is no longer sold as a product. The SDS technology has been rolled into Runge's MD Storage product, part of the Mining Dynamics Suite.

FracSIS Brings Data Together

WA Business News
20 August 2003

Perth-based mining technology company Fractal Technologies has developed a niche in the competitive mining technology industry by bringing data from various systems into one consolidated interface.

The software, called FracSIS, is designed for use by all mining professions (for example, geologists, engineers and geoscientists) and across a range of mining software packages including mine planning, modelling, exploration, GIS, data processing and database packages.

The company evolved from Fractal Graphics, a geo-scientific consultancy established by Nick and Jenny Archibald in 1992. Ms Archibald is managing director and has a background as a geologist. She also was a Fremantle City councillor and served as mayor for three years.

In early 2002 Fractal Graphics was split into two companies - Fractal Technologies (the software development group) and Fractal Geoscience (the geological consulting group). In July of the same year Fractal Geoscience merged with Canadian-based exploration company St Andrew Goldfields to form a new exploration company, Geoinformatics Exploration Pty Ltd. Ms Archibald said Fractal Technologies still maintained close ties with Geoinformatics, which is a main customer.

Ms Archibald said Fractal produced data management and 3D visualisation software and services to the geoscience industry. The company's flagship product is called FracSIS, which allows the user to access most existing mining applications through a single integrated interface.

Starting out with a small research and development team, the company now employs 17 staff.

The product has been available for 12 months in a database form and the current version was released in March, Ms Archibald said.

Fractal also had established good contact with overseas resellers but it was difficult to discuss the company's growth because it was so young, she said. However, Ms Archibald said the company has grown and increased sales with more than 100 clients in the mining industry, some of the major players.

"We are having considerable success in getting the product out and are experiencing growth in sales," she told WA Business News. Of those sales, exports account for 65 per cent. Ms Archibald said the company employed a straight-forward pricing model and maintained an Australian dollar price in all markets throughout the world. "We are still investing very strongly in research and development, which is very important to the business", she said.

Ms Archibald describes FracSIS, which stands for Fractal Technologies Spatial Information System, as an enabling technology that allowed every person in an organisation to access all spatial data, regardless of the underlying format. FracSIS was developed to address the issues associated with the lack of interoperability between existing mining packages that specialise in processing spatial data. It is deployed over a network with components run on a dedicated server. The user then accesses the program on the client machine as required.

"We have written an importing package that brings all software formats together into one object-based database that is a multi-user database," Ms Archibald said. "You get all the data in and then you don't miss anything. It means that you have a complete validated data set. To find new ore deposits is getting harder and harder, so we need to get smarter and smarter."

Ms Archibald said FracSIS was applicable to industries other than mining. She said that future directions for Fractal Technologies included increasing global deployment of the software and diversification into non-geoscientific markets.

In The Nickel Of Time

The Weekend Australian
14 August 1999, Page 28

"The leader, perhaps the world leader, in this field is West Australian-based Fractal Graphics, which stole the show at the recent Kalgoorlie mining conference with its spectacular 3D video mapping technology - a way of envisioning the land and its resources that dramatically expands exploration potential."

Miners Urged to Make Better Use of Technology

The West Australian
4 May 1999

This article expresses Nick Archibald's views on the Mining and Exploration Industries adaptation to computer technology. Amongst the points made in the article:

  • "Many managers are still stuck in an old mindset and are not familiar enough with what the technology can do."
  • "Dr Archibald believes the industry is at a turning point, where companies that cut costs by embracing the new technology will be the ones that survive."

Big Budgets Reveal Potential

Gold Gazette
8 March 1999, page 42

"Hill 50's alliance with Perth-based Fractal Graphics has been an important factor in the company's success to date.

Fractal Graphics' brief is to integrate and standardise all existing drill, mining and exploration data into a single database and produce multi-dimensional models of the entire Mount Magnet goldfield.

Given the plethora of previous miners and explorers at Mount Magnet over the last century, that is no mean feat.

With over 500 square km of tenements, most of which have only been shallowly explored, Hill 50 is confident that new discoveries are just around the corner, thanks in a very large way to its approach with Fractal Graphics, which should enable it to make the most of its field."

Mining Enters the Third Dimension

New Scientist
28 August 1998

The collaboration with the AGCRC on the Menzies-Norseman project provided the basis of this article, from which the following quotation is taken:

"Today, mining is often only marginally profitable, a situation which makes it increasingly difficult to attract investors. Exploring for new deposits remains a highly risky business. And with prospectors mothballing their drill rigs, the industry is desperately looking for new ways to improve the odds. Archibald and his colleagues, with some help from Sulawesi, could have the answer."