Case Study — Mining & Industrial Software

Cullinan Diamond Mine: Over a Decade of Real-Time Dispatch

Overview

Key Facts

Brandsplash, in partnership with Graybeard Solutions, built a real-time dispatch and fleet management system for Cullinan Diamond Mine — one of the world’s most famous diamond mines. Deployed approximately ten years ago, the system still runs today, 24 hours a day, three shifts a day, coordinating underground equipment across four active mining levels. Brandsplash maintains an active service level agreement with Petra Diamonds, and CDM Dispatch remains our flagship product — continuously developed and improved based on a decade of real operational experience.
  • Client: Cullinan Diamond Mine (Petra Diamonds)
  • Industry: Mining
  • Solution: Custom Laravel Application
  • Status: 10+ Years in Continuous Operation
  • Active SLA with Ongoing Development

The Problem with Underground Dispatch

Underground mining dispatch is high-stakes coordination happening in an environment where you can’t see anything. Dispatchers on the surface must assign heavy equipment to the right tunnels, react instantly to blocked draw points or equipment breakdowns, and keep production on target across multiple mining levels — all while maintaining safety compliance for crews working hundreds of metres underground.

Cullinan Diamond Mine operates four active mining levels, each with its own tunnel configurations, draw points, and dump tips. Equipment moves constantly. Tunnels get blocked for blasting, ventilation, or safety reasons. Machines break down. Shifts change. And through all of it, the mine has to hit its tonnage targets.
Traditional dispatch methods — radio calls, whiteboards, spreadsheets — can’t keep up. By the time a dispatcher writes a number on a whiteboard, it’s already wrong. Equipment sits idle while dispatchers try to figure out what’s happening on a level they can’t see. Tonnage targets get missed because nobody has a clear picture of where machines are and what they’re doing right now.
Stale data leads to bad dispatch decisions. Cullinan Diamond Mine needed a system that showed the current state of the mine — not what it looked like five minutes ago.

What We Built

We designed and built CDM Dispatch as a real-time digital command centre for underground mining operations. It replaced manual coordination with a single platform where every LHD machine, every tunnel, every draw point, and every tonne is tracked live.

The system was built in equal partnership with Graybeard Solutions, who designed, built, and installed the complete on-machine hardware system on each LHD. This includes hydraulic sensors for bucket tilt and boom lift detection, WiFi connectivity for the underground network, RFID readers that pick up tags installed throughout the tunnels for automatic positioning and load tracking, and a totally custom operator interface on IFM HMI touchscreen panels in each cab — purpose-built for operators working in harsh underground conditions. Graybeard also built and maintains the MQTT server infrastructure that connects surface and underground in real time.

On the Brandsplash side, we built the entire dispatch management platform — the web application that dispatchers, supervisors, and mine management use every shift. Everything that runs in a browser, from live level dashboards to fleet management to safety messaging to production reporting, is our work.

The two systems communicate through a two-way MQTT data flow. When a dispatcher makes an assignment, the operator sees it on their HMI screen underground within seconds. When a machine completes a load, the sensors detect it, the RFID reader confirms the location, and the data flows back to the dispatch platform automatically. Neither system works in isolation — they form a single integrated operation.

That integration has been running continuously for over a decade.

Cullinan Diamond Mine operates four active mining levels, each with its own tunnel configurations, draw points, and dump tips. Equipment moves constantly. Tunnels get blocked for blasting, ventilation, or safety reasons. Machines break down. Shifts change. And through all of it, the mine has to hit its tonnage targets.

Traditional dispatch methods — radio calls, whiteboards, spreadsheets — can’t keep up. By the time a dispatcher writes a number on a whiteboard, it’s already wrong. Equipment sits idle while dispatchers try to figure out what’s happening on a level they can’t see. Tonnage targets get missed because nobody has a clear picture of where machines are and what they’re doing right now.

Stale data leads to bad dispatch decisions. Cullinan Diamond Mine needed a system that showed the current state of the mine — not what it looked like five minutes ago.

Core Capabilities

Live Level Dashboards
Each of the four active mining levels has its own dedicated dashboard. Dispatchers see a live feeder table showing active dispatch orders with tunnel, orientation, target tonnage, actual tonnage, and progress percentage. An interactive mine map shows tunnel layouts, draw point positions, and blocked areas at a glance. Draw point status indicators are colour-coded in real time — dispatchers always know which points are active and which are blocked, and why. LHD assignments show which machines are where, with load counts and operator names. Dashboards refresh every 20 seconds, with critical events like order acceptance, load completion, and draw point blocks showing immediately.
The machine status board shows every LHD in the fleet at a glance — Available, Assigned, or Breakdown, colour-coded for instant recognition. Dispatchers see live fuel gauge readings from equipment telemetry, current operator names from in-cab systems, and shift-to-date load counts per machine. Assigning an LHD to a tunnel and draw point combination is a single click from the level dashboard. The system simultaneously writes a CSV order file to the mine’s draw control network and updates the dispatch feeder — a dual-write approach that ensures orders reach equipment even if the database is temporarily unavailable.
Dispatchers manage the operational state of every draw point in the mine. Points can be blocked and unblocked with structured reasons — Mine Captain Block, Charge Hole, Charge Bomb, Ventilation, and others — with secondary reason fields for drill and blast context. When a draw point’s status changes, assigned LHDs are notified automatically. Every block and unblock is logged with the user, timestamp, and reason, creating a complete audit trail. Dump tips are managed the same way, with delay tracking and a rolling 7-day status history.
Dispatchers communicate with LHD operators underground through a real-time messaging system powered by MQTT. A standard message library covers common instructions — route changes, refuelling, emergency stops — with up to four quick-reply options per message for fast operator responses. Messages can be sent to a single LHD, all LHDs, all assigned LHDs, or a custom selection. Every conversation is stored with full thread history and sent/read status tracking. When an operator replies, the dispatcher sees a pulsing notification badge until acknowledged. Messages are written simultaneously to equipment network files and the database — the same dual-write reliability used for dispatch orders.
Location-specific safety messages are tied to individual draw points. When conditions at a draw point require attention — weak ventilation, high H2S levels, or other hazards — the safety message displays automatically on operator screens whenever they’re assigned to that location. Production messages work the same way, enforcing ore quality compliance at the draw point level. When assignments change, messages update automatically. Dispatchers don’t have to remember to warn operators — the system does it for them.
Load history can be queried by date range, level, tunnel, and LHD number. Manual entries handle backdated records for system recovery or corrections, with batch generation for repeated hauls. Every edit, addition, and deletion is tracked with the username and timestamp. Production data is always shift-aware — morning, afternoon, and night shifts each have their own boundaries, and targets, load counts, and summaries reset automatically at shift changeover.

Live asset tracking shows the position of each LHD underground. This updates in real-time when an LHD changes position. Additionally, a Load-in-bucket indicator shows if an LHD is currently loaded with material or not. Fuel levels are indicated, logged in operators are shown, and live messaging can be accessed.

Under the Hood

Architecture
Built on Laravel with Livewire, running on IIS with a SQL Server backend. The system uses a dual-database design — one database for authentication (user accounts, sessions, roles, permissions) and a separate operations database for all dispatch data (LHDs, tunnels, tips, loads, MQTT history, production records). This isolation improves security and allows independent management of each layer.
Critical events push through MQTT immediately — order acceptance, load completion, draw point status changes, operator fatigue alerts, and SOS signals. Reference data refreshes on short polling intervals of 15 to 30 seconds. The system never sacrifices data freshness for performance. The MQTT server infrastructure, on-machine hardware (hydraulic sensors, WiFi, RFID positioning), and custom IFM HMI operator interface are designed, built, and maintained by our project partner, Graybeard Solutions.
Dispatch orders and messages are written to both the mine’s draw control network (as CSV files consumed by LHD equipment) and the SQL Server database. This ensures continuity even during partial system outages.
All time calculations, reporting boundaries, and data aggregation respect mining shift boundaries — morning (06:00–14:00), afternoon (14:00–22:00), and night (22:00–06:00). Production targets, load counts, and dispatch orders reset at shift changeover automatically.
Permission provides granular access control — dispatchers get full dispatch control and messaging, admins manage fleet configuration and users, supervisors access tracking and production data, and the public kiosk display requires no authentication at all.
The application is installable on desktop and mobile devices, providing app-like access without app store distribution. Service worker support enables basic access during network interruptions.
Four active mining levels are managed, each with distinct tunnel configurations and mining methods. Each level has its own configuration file defining tunnel geometry, map coordinates, and UI layout — making the system adaptable as the mine’s operations evolve over time.

A Decade Underground — and Still Evolving

Any developer can launch a system. Keeping one running in a diamond mine for over a decade is a different proposition entirely.

CDM Dispatch has operated continuously through shift changes, equipment upgrades, network outages, mine expansions, and changes in personnel. It has survived every scenario that underground mining can throw at a software system — because it was designed for exactly that environment. Dual-write reliability means orders reach machines even when databases go down. Shift-aware time handling means data stays accurate across thousands of shift changeovers. A complete audit trail means every decision, every message, and every status change from the past ten years is still traceable.
 
Cullinan Diamond Mine hasn’t replaced CDM Dispatch because it hasn’t needed to — and because it keeps getting better. We continue to innovate on the platform, adding capabilities and refining the system based on real operational feedback from dispatchers, supervisors, and mine management who use it every shift. This isn’t a system that was built and left to age. It’s a living product, actively developed and supported, backed by a formal commitment to the mine’s ongoing operations.
 
When Palabora Mining Company needed a dispatch system for their block cave operation, they came to the same partnership — Brandsplash and Graybeard Solutions — because the track record at Cullinan spoke for itself. Not just that the system was still running, but that it was still being improved.
 
That’s the standard we hold ourselves to. Not just building software that works on launch day, but building software that’s still running, still evolving, and still delivering value a decade later.

Built in Partnership with Graybeard Solutions

CDM Dispatch is the product of an equal partnership between two specialist companies that has now spanned over a decade.
 
Brandsplash designed and built the dispatch management platform — the web application used by dispatchers, supervisors, and mine management on the surface. Live level dashboards, fleet management, draw point control, messaging, safety alerts, production tracking, kiosk displays, reporting, and the complete audit trail are all Brandsplash’s work.
 
Graybeard Solutions designed, built, and installed the complete hardware and software system on each LHD machine. This includes hydraulic sensors for bucket tilt and boom lift detection, WiFi bullets for underground network connectivity, RFID readers that pick up tags installed throughout the tunnels for automatic positioning and load tracking, and a totally custom user interface on IFM HMI touchscreen panels — purpose-built for operators working underground. Graybeard also built and maintains the MQTT server infrastructure that makes real-time two-way communication between surface and underground possible.
 
The two systems are tightly integrated. Dispatch assignments flow from the Brandsplash platform to the operator’s HMI screen in seconds. Load completions, position data, and status changes flow back from the equipment to the dispatch platform in real time. This two-way integration has been running continuously for over ten years, maintained under an active service level agreement and continuously improved by both companies.

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Whether it’s a dispatch system for a mine, a monitoring platform for your business, or a website that works as hard as you do — we build software with the same standard of reliability and commitment to long-term partnership we’ve proven over a decade at Cullinan Diamond Mine.
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