NGIS was contracted to provide technical expertise on the selection and customisation of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to help manage the vast amounts of spatial data collected as the project, now in its exploration and mine-planning phases, looks to move on to construction and then into production in mid-2007.

The Oyu Tolgoi site

The Oyu Tolgoi exploration site is located in the south Gobi region of Mongolia, only 80km north of the Chinese-Mongolian border. A critical consideration in developing the GIS was overcoming the remoteness of the site, and making the data collated available, securely, to Ivanhoe staff around the world for analysis and reporting.

NGIS’ proposed solution

To resolve these issues, NGIS has suggest Ivanhoe package the following software applications:

• GeoSamba(e) - a web-based interface providing secure access to GIS data from any web-enabled machine within the Ivanhoe network.
• MAADGIS - an extension to the existing MapInfo desktop GIS packages that provides the tools to easily search and access GIS data and associated documents.

GeoSamba(e)’s friendly, web-based interface provides secure integration of a multitude of exploration databases with the GIS.

Chris worked closely with Ivanhoe's team of experts to identify which existing data sets were required to be incorporated into the GIS and to develop ongoing procedures for data collection and maintenance.

Chris found the experience highly rewarding: 'The Ivanhoe OT project is believed to be one of the world's highest-grade copper porphyry discoveries. To be able to work alongside Ivanhoe, extending its GIS capability as the company moves to develop the project in what can only be described as a truly unique environment, is a project I am excited to be involved with'.

NGIS has had much success in Asia over the last seven years and the work undertaken with Ivanhoe has certainly added to this success.