Case Study — Mining & Industrial Software

Palabora Mining Company: Real-Time Underground Dispatch

Overview

Key Facts

Brandsplash, in partnership with Graybeard Solutions, designed and built a real-time dispatch management system for one of South Africa’s major block cave mining operations — giving dispatchers, supervisors, and mine management a single platform to coordinate underground equipment, track production in real time, and protect ore recovery through draw card compliance.
  • Client: Palabora Mining Company
  • Industry: Mining
  • Solution: Custom Laravel Application
  • Status: Deployed

Why Dispatch Matters in Block Cave Mining

Block cave mining is one of the most cost-effective methods for extracting deep ore bodies. Instead of drilling and blasting every tonne, the mine undercuts the ore body and lets gravity do the work — the rock collapses under its own weight, and heavy equipment called LHDs (Load-Haul-Dump machines) collect the broken ore from drawpoints hundreds of metres underground.

It sounds simple. It isn’t.

The entire process depends on drawing ore evenly across neighbouring drawpoints. Every drawpoint has a target tonnage for each shift, defined by a document called a draw card. When dispatchers follow the draw card, the ore body collapses evenly, flow cones overlap, and recovery is maximised. When they don’t, the consequences are severe and often irreversible.

Uneven draw rates can strand ore permanently in dead zones where it can never be recovered — typically 15 to 25% of total ore. Overdrawing a single point can pull waste rock into the ore stream, reducing grade by 20 to 40%. In the worst cases, uncontrolled caving causes stress redistribution that crushes extraction tunnels, destroying infrastructure worth tens of millions of rand. The most dangerous consequence — air blasts caused by sudden void collapse — can be lethal.

Every one of these failures starts with a single drawpoint getting too much or too little attention. The dispatcher is the critical human link between the mine plan and what actually happens underground. They need to make the right call, every shift, with live information — not data that’s five minutes old.

Palabora Mining Company needed a dispatch system purpose-built for this reality.

What We Built

We designed and developed BCD Dispatch as a complete real-time dispatch and production management platform, built from the ground up around the specific demands of block cave mining. This wasn’t our first dispatch system. Brandsplash originally designed and built a real-time dispatch platform for Cullinan Diamond Mine (Petra Diamonds) approximately ten years ago — and that system is still in daily operation today, coordinating LHD fleets across four active mining levels, 24/7, three shifts a day. Dispatch V2 was built on that decade of real-world mining dispatch experience, re-engineered from the ground up for the specific physics and operational demands of block cave mining at Palabora. 
Working in equal partnership with Graybeard Solutions — who designed, built, and installed the complete on-machine hardware system, custom operator interface, and MQTT infrastructure — we replaced the mine’s previous dispatch system with a modern, fully integrated solution connecting surface dispatchers to underground machines in real time.
The platform gives six different user groups — dispatchers, shift supervisors, mine planners, equipment operators, maintenance teams, and mine management — a single system tailored to their specific needs. Dispatchers manage machine assignments and monitor production. Supervisors oversee shift performance. Planners upload draw cards and review compliance. Operators receive assignments on underground terminals. Maintenance teams track equipment status. Management accesses reports and analytics.
Everything runs through a browser. No desktop software to install. The application is installable as a Progressive Web App on tablets and mobile devices — giving mine personnel app-like access without app store distribution.

Core Capabilities

Draw Card Compliance Tracking
Mine planners upload shift production plans that define exactly how many tonnes should be drawn from each drawpoint. Dispatchers see these targets alongside real-time progress indicators showing actual tonnes extracted. The system makes it easy to follow the plan and immediately visible when draw rates drift off target — because in block cave mining, compliance isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s what prevents ore loss, waste contamination, and infrastructure damage.
Dispatch V2 communicates with underground LHD machines through a two-way MQTT integration built in partnership with Graybeard Solutions. Graybeard designed and installed a complete custom hardware system on each LHD — including hydraulic sensors for bucket tilt and boom lift, WiFi connectivity, RFID readers for automatic tunnel positioning, and a custom-built operator interface on IFM HMI touchscreens. When a dispatcher assigns an LHD to a drawpoint in the Brandsplash platform, the instruction travels through the MQTT broker and appears on the operator’s custom HMI screen underground within seconds. When the machine loads ore, the hydraulic sensors detect the bucket movement, the RFID reader confirms the location, and that data flows back through MQTT to update the dispatch platform in real time. This isn’t polling a database every few minutes — it’s genuine two-way communication between surface and equipment hundreds of metres below, with hardware-level sensing driving automatic load and position tracking.
Every LHD in the fleet is tracked at a glance: Available, Assigned, Breakdown, or Standby. Dispatchers see which machines are where, what they’re doing, and how they’re performing. Every status change is logged with a full audit trail — who changed it, when, and why. Maintenance teams use the same data to track breakdowns, analyse equipment availability, and identify patterns that indicate recurring problems.
Custom SVG-based maps show the mine layout with draggable drawpoints and tip positions. Asset tracking views display real-time equipment positions updated live via MQTT. Dedicated map views for dispatch, workshop, and asset tracking give different teams the visual context they need. Public kiosk displays show production status on large screens at the workshop or on the surface — no login required.
Load data flows in automatically from underground equipment. Production can be viewed by machine, tunnel, shift, or operator — with Chart.js visualisations showing trends, comparisons, and performance against targets. PDF reports cover machine status, production summaries, shift performance, and equipment breakdowns. Reports can be emailed automatically to configurable mailing lists, ensuring the right people see the right data without anyone having to remember to send it.
Production delays are logged with categorised reasons, associated with specific machines and locations, and tracked for duration. Over time, this data reveals patterns — which delay categories occur most frequently, which machines are most affected, and where operational bottlenecks consistently appear. This turns anecdotal complaints into actionable data.
Mining operations run 24/7 across three shifts. Dispatch V2 respects shift boundaries in all time calculations, reporting, and data aggregation. When a new dispatcher starts their shift, they see exactly where the outgoing shift left off — current machine assignments, production progress against draw card targets, active delays, and any messages awaiting response. There are no gaps in the handover.

Under the Hood

Architecture
Built on Laravel 12 with Livewire 3, giving a fully reactive user interface without the complexity and maintenance overhead of a separate JavaScript front-end application. Every component updates in real time without page reloads.
The dispatch platform integrates with MQTT over SSL to communicate with underground equipment in real time. 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. On the Brandsplash side, MQTT isn’t a bolt-on — it’s woven into the core architecture. Machine assignments, status updates, position tracking, and operator communication all flow through the two-way MQTT integration.
PostgreSQL in production was chosen for its reliability under continuous write-heavy workloads and strong support for complex queries across large production datasets.
Role-based access control, two-factor authentication, and complete audit logging of every status change, assignment, load record, and message. In a safety-critical environment, traceability isn’t optional.
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.
A Progressive Web App is installable on any device. Kiosk mode for large-screen displays. Scheduled tasks for automated report generation and data maintenance. PDF generation via server-side rendering.
A comprehensive 10-section help system accessible to all users, covering everything from getting started to troubleshooting — supporting dark mode, responsive layout, and role-based content visibility.

What This Project Says About Brandsplash

BCD Dispatch is not a website. It’s a mission-critical application operating in one of the most demanding environments in industry — underground, safety-critical, 24/7, with real-time communication to heavy equipment hundreds of metres below the surface.

Brandsplash built the entire dispatch management platform from scratch — the architecture, the draw card compliance engine, the interactive mine maps, the production tracking, the reporting, the shift-aware time handling, and the complete audit trail. One developer, one codebase, one platform serving six different user roles across an entire mining operation. In partnership with Graybeard Solutions, who designed and installed the complete on-machine hardware system, custom operator interface, and MQTT infrastructure, the result is a fully integrated system spanning from surface control rooms to sensor-equipped LHDs hundreds of metres underground.

This is the same team, the same technical capability, and the same attention to reliability that we bring to every project — whether it’s a dispatch system for a mine or a website for a growing business. The scale changes. The standard doesn’t.

Built in Partnership with Graybeard Solutions

BCD Dispatch is a joint effort between two specialist companies, each responsible for a distinct layer of the system.
 
Brandsplash designed and built the dispatch management platform — the web application that dispatchers, supervisors, planners, and mine management use to coordinate operations, track production, manage equipment, and generate reports. Everything that runs in a browser, from draw card compliance tracking to interactive mine maps to PDF reporting, is 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, a WiFi bullet for underground network connectivity, and RFID readers that pick up RFID tags installed throughout the tunnels — enabling automatic positioning and tracking of load and dump operations. On top of this hardware platform, Graybeard built a totally custom user interface on IFM HMI (Human-Machine Interface) touchscreen panels inside the LHD cabs, purpose-built for operators working in harsh underground conditions. These are the screens that operators interact with during their shift — receiving dispatch assignments, confirming loads, reporting status changes, and communicating with surface dispatchers. Graybeard also built and maintains the MQTT server infrastructure that makes real-time communication between surface and underground possible.

The two systems are tightly integrated through a two-way MQTT data flow. When a dispatcher assigns an LHD to a drawpoint in the Brandsplash platform, that instruction travels through the MQTT broker and appears on the operator’s IFM HMI panel underground within seconds. When the operator completes a load, confirms an assignment, or reports a status change on their HMI, that data flows back through MQTT and updates the dispatch platform in real time. Neither system works in isolation — they form a single integrated operation spanning surface control rooms and underground equipment cabs.

This partnership model means each company focuses on what it does best: Brandsplash on the web platform, data management, and reporting layer; Graybeard on the complete on-machine hardware system, custom operator interface, MQTT infrastructure, and underground network connectivity. The result is a system that’s robust at every level — from the dispatcher’s screen on surface to the sensor-equipped, RFID-tracked LHDs hundreds of metres below.

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