Publicly-available software: Inexpensive mining tools
M.D. Loy · Coal Min. Process.; (United States) · 1983
In addition to products available from private vendors, useful programs have been developed through government sponsored research and development projects. Many of these products were developed at universities and, in many cases, led the way to commercial development. Other projects were assigned to consultants with backgrounds in both systems design and mining. Both types of development have led to programs that can be acquired for the cost of a tape or disk. The US Bureau of Mines developed most programs in the early seventies. While the programs have substantial utility, their development time frame reflects the hardware technology of that era - primarily mainframe configurations. Because the federal government virtually does not support coal mining oriented R and D, these programs have not been modified to run on today's microprocessor-based hardware. Nonetheless, don't overlook them-at the least they may provide some starter code for those companies thinking about developing their own software. Programs can be grouped into two major classifications-surface programs and underground programs. The surface programs discussed are the 522 model, developed by DATA-TECH; the NUS model, developed by NUS Corp.; and the Bonner and Moore model, developed by Fluor Utah, Inc. and Bonner and Moore Associates, Inc. Includedmore » is information on program history, features, applications, analysis, and computer aspects. The three models address types of mining methods to yield detailed cost information. However, they differ in their relative strengths and weaknesses.« less