Mines, municipalities etc. are required by environmental legislation to monitor surface water and groundwater quantity (flows), water levels and water quality parameters. This data usually ends up in spreadsheets or informal database systems. Masses of data is generated annually by mining houses and other institutions on site, and surrounding environs water quantity and quality. 

The quality of the water resource data consultants have to analyse and process is directly linked and usually limited by the availability and quality of the data. WIMS has built-in data quality checks.

Consultants, that have to analyse this data, are paid far more to retrieve the data every time there is a project than it costs your business to sign up for a WIMS license. At $20/month for the groundwater module WIMSHydro (boreholes, water levels, water quality, spatial data) and $9000/year for the full WIMS, which can store and report on the complete mine water balance flows and water quality data, the numbers speak for themselves. The cost of one inorganic chemical analysis is in the order of $120. A full WIMS license is equal to the cost of only 75 chemical analyses. This is equal to the chemical analysis of one sampling run at a medium-sized mining operation.

WIMS also has the ability to produce analytical data tables, graphs and reports. The ability to produce multi-parameter transient trend graphs, on the same page as a spatially intelligent plots, makes interpretation faster and more efficient. 

Customisation and automation of data tables, graphs and spatial plots based on statistical data analysis add immense value in the workflow, saving time and valuable human resources. 

Functionality for powerful data analytics and reports exist, but can also be expanded to mine large data sets in order to gain deep insight and knowledge. For e.g. the Tshiping Project (www.tshiping.co.za) where more than 4600 boreholes are based in two quaternary catchments, across hundreds of farms and multiple mines.

WIMS can link to LAB and SCADA systems to make data available. With the ability to customise and autogenerate reports companies can unlock exceptional value-adds in terms of time and effort (i.e. money) savings.

The journey from Data to Information to Knowledge, is a journey on which management decisions are based. With regards to water management, this journey can be facilitated and housed in WIMSHydro as part of a system process that can be partially automated and effectively accelerated. The data is usually analysed in numerous spreadsheets and stored in various locations. The problem is that the data in these sheets are neither relational nor checked for quality. WIMS as a virtual data warehouse and interpretation system can be used to make large data sets instantly available from numerous projects. 

This is extremely useful for mining clients as their data is usually based at consultants, so they repeatedly end up paying for data retrieval and analysis. 

From the consultant’s perspective it is time saving and valuable to relate all data from past and new projects. As qualified professionals typically only stay an average of 3-5 years at a company, WIMS serves as an institutional memory. WIMS saves time and money not only on historical data and projects, but also in relation between comprehensive and diverse projects.

There is currently no known integrated and dynamic mine water focused water data system that can compete with WIMS as it has the ability to accommodate and report on water data sites across numerous water use types (i.e. boreholes/wells, springs, rivers, dams, mine sections etc) that relates temporal and spatial data in custom graphs and maps.