With the launch of the new mXrap website we have been progressively
moving training videos directly into the documentation pages,
including videos for individual modules as well as the training
program that was previously hosted in the dedicated mXvideos site.
This has allowed us to create a more streamlined and cohesive
documentation resource where you can find all the information you
require about a module without needing to search across multiple
sites.
Following the completion of this work, the old mXvideos site has
been retired.
If you are having trouble finding a particular video or information
about a particular module, please contact us at .
Understanding structurally controlled instability remains one of the most important challenges in underground mining. While traditional structural assessments often rely on deterministic interpretations, the reality is that fracture networks are inherently variable and uncertain. The new Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) tools in mXrap address this challenge by enabling users to generate, calibrate, and analyse realistic fracture networks, and assess their implications for block stability and ground support performance.
The new workflow consists of two integrated components: the DFN Generator and the Block Analyser.
The DFN Generator creates statistically representative fracture networks based on measured structural data. For each joint set, the model characterises fracture orientation, size, and intensity, providing a three-dimensional representation of the rock mass fracture system.
Initial parameter estimates are derived from mapping, boreholes, scanlines, and other structural datasets. These estimates are then refined through a calibration process in which synthetic fracture networks are sampled using the same methods employed during field data collection. By reproducing the original sampling conditions, the model accounts for the same observational biases present in the measured data, ensuring that the calibrated DFN accurately reflects the rock mass being assessed.
The result is a DFN model that provides a realistic statistical representation of the fracture network and forms the foundation for subsequent stability analysis.
Once calibrated, the DFN is used to generate multiple fracture network realisations. Rather than relying on a single interpretation of the rock mass, the workflow creates many statistically equivalent fracture networks, capturing the natural variability that exists underground.
For each realisation, mXrap automatically identifies removable blocks that form around the excavation surface. These blocks are accumulated across all simulations, creating a large dataset of potential instability scenarios that can be analysed probabilistically.
As additional simulations are completed, statistics such as block weight and frequency of occurrence progressively converge. This provides confidence that the accumulated block population adequately represents the range of structurally controlled failure mechanisms that may occur around the excavation.
The Block Analyser evaluates the stability of each accumulated block using limit equilibrium methods.
Stability depends on three key factors:
Block geometry
Joint strength properties
Installed ground support
Potential failure mechanisms include direct falls, sliding on a single discontinuity, and sliding along the intersection of discontinuities. For each block, a Factor of Safety (FoS) is calculated by comparing the forces resisting movement with those driving failure.
Joint strength parameters, including friction angle, cohesion, and dilation angle, can be assigned to each joint set, allowing the analysis to reflect realistic rock mass behaviour and discontinuity characteristics.
To focus on meaningful operational risks, blocks can be filtered by criteria such as size, weight, location, and failure mechanism. This enables engineers to concentrate on blocks that are most likely to influence safety, dilution, production performance, or support requirements.
One of the most powerful aspects of the workflow is the ability to assess ground support performance across thousands of potential block failure scenarios.
Support standards can be virtually installed within the excavation and automatically incorporated into the stability calculations.
The resulting analyses provide insight into:
The locations where instability is most likely to occur
The magnitude of potential block failures
The frequency of unstable blocks
Ground support demand and reinforcement loading
This allows engineers to move beyond deterministic assessments and evaluate how support systems perform across a broad range of realistic geological conditions.
The true value of the mXrap DFN workflow lies in its probabilistic approach. Instead of asking whether a single block is stable, engineers can evaluate how frequently specific failure mechanisms occur across many plausible fracture network realisations.
This provides a more realistic understanding of geotechnical risk and creates a robust framework for comparing excavation geometries, support standards, and design alternatives. By combining DFN calibration, block accumulation, stability assessment, and support analysis within a single workflow, mXrap enables more informed, data-driven decisions for managing structurally controlled instability in underground excavations.
From it's humble beginnings as MSRAP back in the 2000's, the mXrap platform we know today has grown into a multi-disciplinary collection of geotechnical apps. It's continued expansion is driven by a number of ACG research projects and strong industry collaboration, growing it into a widely adopted industry platform used across the globe for managing a range of geotechnical risk.
As the platform continues to evolve and new apps emerge, it’s worth taking a fresh look at the capabilities now available to you, and how these apps link together.
With the growing number of apps within the mXrap platform, there is also an inherent interconnectivity between many of the features and it can be difficult navigating what links to what, especially when you are new to the platform, or adding key new features into your set-up.
Use the interactive graphic below to navigate the app ecosystem. Hovering over any app will automatically highlight all connected apps. There's more information and key links for each of the apps in the sections below.
Different apps can be suited to different mining methods and site needs. The following sections provide high level overviews of the various apps and if you would like more information, a link to the full product page is provided for convenience.
The Mine Seismicity module provides tools for the analysis and interpretation of seismic data and management of seismic hazard. There are a number of key apps that integrate to form the Mine Seismicity module which include:
This app helps users to create clean model geometry for input into numerical modelling packages along with visualisation of the results in combination with other monitoring data.
It utilises the Mine Geometry Models app and is able to input a range of survey file formats as input files. These surveys are then discretised to allow for a cleaning process to be run. Following this, the user can export the clean shapes into several different file formats including Map3D files, FLAC3D grid files and the conventional .dxf along with others.
This app is a general purpose data entry app designed for offline use with tablet devices which can be fully customised to fit each site's exact needs.
The app allows simple and fast input of multiple data types (selection, text, numerical inputs, orientation etc.) as well as attaching photos and sketches to reports. Inputs can be grouped into sections, or into different pages for easier use. Other useful features include:
The ability to georeference inspections using mine plans
View data from previous reports
Customised the desktop view to suite your required analyses and reporting requirements
So far, uses from sites have included:
General underground inspections
QAQC inspections and checks
Rock mass characterisation mapping
Open pit inspections
Pastefill UCS testing
With reports documented digitally, you remove the requirement to undertake data entry and support the site safety management system with verifiable inspections and record keeping.
Instrumentation currently includes extensometers and in situ stress monitoring as independent apps. See the Caving Suite for more information about cave-specific monitoring.
This app enables the user to import and evaluate various formats of extensometer. By enabling the user to select the time window of interest, data across the life of the instrument can be investigated both as cumulative values over the length of the instrument and also for each node. Overlaying the extensometer into the 3D view with mien survey data, seismicity and blasting provides additional context to the observed changes and supports the generation of images for inclusion in reports.
Leveraging installed continuous stress monitoring devices like CSIRO stress cells or vibrating wire stress cells, this app enables visualisation of the recorded data over time. It also inverts the data to produce the in situ stress state, allowing for the analysis of changes in stress magnitude and orientation over time.
For more information on either of these instrumentation apps, see the full product page.
The aim of this module is to allow users to seamlessly import, organise, visualise, and analyse geotechnical data related to the rock mass, intact rock, discontinuities and stress measurements - all in one centralised, powerful database built for modern mining operations.
A dedicated app also enables users to perform raisebore stability analysis.
This app is recommended for anyone looking to unlock deeper insights into their data from a geotechnical perspective. Key features include:
automatic synchronisation with on-site databases, when available
association of geological logs, borehole surveys and all associated geotechnical data including structural, rock mass and lab testing data
fitting of Hoek-Brown curves to different segments of data
detailed and rapid statistical comparisons between lithologies or domains
stereonet functionality including set assessment and assignement
integrated core and lab photos to validate statistical analyses
perform raisebore stability assessments based on the McCracken and Stacey (1989) method
For more information and a demonstration, see the full product page.
The DFN apps provide tools to generate a Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) from your structural data, calibrate it from your sampling data, and analyze the tetrahedral and complex blocks around underground excavations. You can also do static assessment of stability of blocks in a probabilistic manner.
These tools are intended to make the user's experience with the mXrap software more streamlined and can help improve the overall performance of the app. Tools include:
This module is a collection of tools to aid in the design of backfill in stoping operations. Users can simulate filling in their stope geometry from multiple fill locations and with different fill beaching angles. This allows for volume calculations of partially rock-filled stopes. Bund capacities can also be calculated by removing the fill barricades. There is also a tool to simulate the flow of paste along the input reticulation path. This can be used to ensure the gravitational flow will overcome the pipe friction and reach the stope successfully without blocking the line. Key features include:
Calculate fill volumes and bund capacities from input geometry.
Assess the stability of the fill mass using multiple analytical methods.
Analyse UCS testing data and fit a strength prediction model.
Assess the friction and pressure profile of input paste reticulation path.
The Stope Reconciliation module allows users to reconcile their mined surveys and design shapes quickly and easily. The reconciliation analysis is done on a fine resolution (less than 1 m) which allows for insights on a scale not previously considered in the industry. The app considers a range of factors which can contribute to stope performance, for example, quantification of various aspects of design geometry, blasthole data, and geotechnical data. The analysis application gives users the ability to visualise and discover trends in their data, identifying the critical factors leading to stope overbreak and underbreak at their mine.
For more information and a demonstration, see the full product page.
The Ground Support Standard Designer app provides tools for designing and visualising ground support systems for underground excavations. This application allows users to create standardised ground support designs that can be used in analysis and other mXrap apps. Within the interactive environment users are able to:
Define tunnel drive profiles with customisable dimensions and curvature
Design ground support patterns including rock bolts, shotcrete, mesh, and straps
Calculate ground support energy capacity
Visualise support elements in both profile and unwrapped views
Create ground support standards for use across multiple apps
The Caving module is a set of applications that provide tools for the analysis and interpretation of cave monitoring data sources. Currently, four apps are included in the Caving module:
The Caving Sandbox brings together multiple forms of cave monitoring in order to give users the best possible picture of what is happening in their cave mine. The app also includes several other charts and tables to help quantify production versus seismicity and the height of the cave back over time. Monitoring methods currently built into the Sandbox include:
Seismic monitoring
Smart markers & networked smart markers
Elexon cave tracker beacons
TDR cables
Extensometers
Prouduction tracking data
Borehole logging
Active seismic tomography
Fibre optic cable monitoring
Blast data
Surface subsidence from surface flyover data and prisms
As monitoring technologies continue to develop, new features are being developed in this Sandbox in collaboration with mining operations and suppliers.
This app processes and visualises caving fragmentation data. It allows you to view particle size distributions for multiple drawpoints across different dates. Selected particle‑size percentile values can be displayed in 3D for each date, as well as in a column format to show how they change over time. You can also generate 3D pie charts for each drawpoint to illustrate the proportion of fragmentation size categories. Additionally, a 3D heatmap of fragmentation can be produced to highlight spatial patterns in the data.
Linked to the Rock Mass Data app to plot boreholes, the user is able to enter downhole depths that represent the cave back, muckpile, yield zone or any other user defined labels to assist in visualising cave position and growth over time. With the overlay of additional monitoring data sources, this feature assists site geotechncial engineers in understanding the cave profile and subsequently aid in on site risk management processes.
Using the undercut blasting data, this module calculates the hydraulic radius (HR) of the undercut over time. The app also provides functions to correlate the seismic response with the hydraulic radius.
For more information on any of these features in the Caving module, see the full product page.
The Inrush Management app allows users to visualise data from multiple sources for the purpose of quantifying and visualising inrush risk on a block cave footprint. Pulling data sources from the Caving module, and additional information from site observation of drawpoint conditions, bogging status and PCBC clay forecasting, information is categorised and ranked based on the site-specific risk framework. The app can also be configured to consider any range of data available on site, along with specific categories and risk rankings to produce plots overlain on the cave footprint, pertaining to inrush risk and associated factors.
The Prism Monitoring app provides the tools to import and evaluate prism data which is routinely used to monitor ground movements, for example, slopes in open pits, underground drives or subsidence zones associated with caving. Displacement and rate data are plotted in 3D as a vector and interpolated values are shown on triangulations, charted over time, and summarised in tables. Data from the period of interest can be selected for individual, multiple, or predefined zones of prisms. Additional analysis options include piecewise linear fitting to assess rates of deformation and persistent quality tags for excluding erroneous data.
mXrap now includes a new tool that can automatically create your clipping volumes, based on survey files you select.
Following feedback from users who would like to automatically generate clipping volumes from existing surveys, you can now use the Survey Clipping tool to do just that.
The new tool can be accessed through the General Setup Window and under Survey Clipping (located between the Filter Volumes Editor and the Grid Editor):
In this tool, you can use any survey shape stored in your basic site surveys. Once you select the survey files in the left‑hand panel, a green box representing the clipping volume appears in the 3D window, and the corresponding parameters are highlighted in green in the table view. You can then adjust the extents before saving, allowing you to define a custom volume based on the selected surveys.
After saving, the volumes are added to the main clipping volumes panel, where they can be used throughout the mXrap suite. A worked example is included below.
In this example, several surveys have been selected to define the clipping range, shown in X–Z view with perspective disabled. A vertical raise contained in one of the level surveys pushes the clipping box higher than the adjacent development and stoping.
In this case, we don’t want to include the vertical development in the new clipping volume. Using the Survey Clipping panel on the left, we can limit the maximum Z of the volume to the target RL. The green clipping box updates automatically, and we now have the volume we want to save to the clipping volumes table.
After naming the clipping volume, select Save at the bottom of the panel. The volume is added to the full clipping volumes table and becomes accessible from the General Analysis window and all other mXrap applications.
6.1.4 introduces a few bug fixes, and a new feature: the ability to download files from HTTP and SFTP hosts (SFTP is for transferring files via SSH - used for downloading event files from IMS servers).
You will be prompted to upgrade by a yellow banner at the top of the Apps window. Follow the link to download and install.
