Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for mineral processing companies.
A checklist built from how mineral processing companies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Ore receipt and stockpile blocks
- Mill shift log
- Sample register and assays
- Metallurgical balance
- Reagent and consumables store
- Wear parts and maintenance
- Concentrate dispatch
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For plant managers
- For metallurgists
- For shift supervisors and operators
- For laboratory staff
- For maintenance planners
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Feed tonnes and grade by stockpile block and blend
- Recovery and mass balance by shift, day and lot
- Assays awaited and assays released, by sample point
- Reagent and grinding media use per tonne milled, by circuit
- Mill and pump running hours against the next liner change
- Concentrate stock and shipments by lot, with moisture and weights
- Buyer and umpire assay differences by shipment
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Weighbridge output file
- Laboratory results file
- SMS
- WhatsApp or other messaging
- Accounting export
- Process historian export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does the software run the plant or control the mills?
- Can it handle both flotation and leach circuits?
- How is recovery calculated?
- Can a sample be traced back to a stockpile block?
- What about toll processing for several mine owners?
- Can the laboratory work from its own instrument files?
- How are liners and pumps tracked?
- Is the buyer’s assay kept?
- Who owns the records?
- What does it cost?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Feed tonnes and assays sit apart
- Recovery is worked out weeks late
- Reagent use cannot be tied to a shift
- Liners and mill parts wear out unnoticed
- Concentrate shipments differ from the contract
Prefer to talk it through? See the mineral processing companies page.