GMG Open Mining Format – Workshop
Mining companies are seeing a growing need to integrate and go digital and are therefore looking for interoperable software. This need has been accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis and the move to remote work. Now, companies not only want a platform for sharing and integrating data, but they also want to equip remote workers with integrated tools that they can use from home. As a result, software companies are receiving many requests for one-off solutions and APIs. There is an opportunity to funnel the effort, now happening between individual companies, into a collaborative effort for creating a more simplified integration layer.
Leveraging the GMG Open Mining Format (OMF) and the community around it may be a good first step for this collaborative effort to enable data interoperability. OMF is an open-source file specification for 3D data interoperability that facilitates the easy transfer of data between proprietary software formats. The benefits include:
- Saving time running transformations
- Reducing data corruption risks
- Enabling the adoption of advanced digital technologies
While the scope of OMF is currently very focused, it could cover a wider range of data interoperability and integration needs with greater resources and capabilities for development.
Version 2.0
The first version of OMF, launched in 2017, supports basic structures including points, lines, surfaces, meshes and volumes. The second version is extending that support to block models, computer-generated representations of orebodies that contain valuable data about them. Version 2.0 is ready to publish. The aim for this workshop is to sign off on publication or, if not, identify what is needed to publish version 2.0 as well as to determine next steps on what should be addressed next.