Drawing on extensive geological, mining engineering, metallurgical and financial expertise, Snowden Optiro provides technical expertise and commercial advice to assist clients throughout the mining cycle. Our team are among the most experienced consultants in the mining industry.
What we do
Snowden Optiro is a mining advisory, training and software firm that provides strategic, independent advice to mining and exploration companies, their advisors and investors. Drawing on extensive geological, mining engineering, metallurgical, technological and financial expertise, Snowden Optiro provides technical and commercial advice to assist clients with investment decisions at or before commencement, and maximise operational value throughout the mining cycle. Our team of geologists, mining engineers, software developers and other mining professionals are among the most experienced mining consultants in the industry who are recognised competent persons under JORC and other international standards and have published numerous reports supporting listings small and large on stock exchanges around the world including the ASX, SGX, TSX, JSE, AIM, LSE & NYSE.
Our mining industry consultancy and advisory services include:
- geological services including exploration services, mine geology and resource evaluation, definition, analysis and audit
- mine engineering design, study analysis and audit to provide operational strategies and process improvements aimed at optimising mining operations
- mining project valuation, financial analysis, risk appetite determination, due-diligence and financial optimisation
- audits and reviews including compliance audits, benchmarking reviews, operating and capital cost
- strategic and operational optimisation of mining activities with specialist scenario analysis designed to improved sustainable financial outcomes for mining projects
- corporate advisory services leading to full transaction support and fundraising for mining projects
- knowledge transfer activities, including structured learning, training, mentoring and our free technical podcasts
- provision of specialist software to streamline resource evaluation with accuracy and confidence.
From our advisory experience we have developed software tools that help the industry to implement best practice:
- Supervisor: Built by Geologists for Geologists, Supervisor helps solve practical geological issues in the shortest possible time.
- Reconcilor: Reconcilor tracks tonnes and metal movement across the mine value chain to identify sources of loss and areas for continuous improvement in a mining operation.
Our history
Snowden was founded in Perth, Western Australia by Phil and Viv Snowden in 1987. Starting as a boutique geological advisory firm providing computer-based solutions and skills that were rare at the time. The business quick grew to cover the globe with offices opened in Brisbane, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Vancouver, Calgary, Belo Horizonte and London. Advisory capability grew to cover mining, geotechnical, metallurgy, training and business improvement.
Born from the innovation in the advisory business and a growing interest from the market in custom software solutions, Snowden also established a Technologies business in 2000. Snowden Technologies developed bespoke software solutions for some of the largest mining companies in the world, and eventually developed its own products: Supervisor and Reconcilor.
Snowden was acquired by Roche Mining (part of Downer) in 2005.
The Optiro business was formed in 2008 by six ex-Snowden executives with the objective of providing a fresh approach: a boutique practice that offered high value-add clients by aligning technical expertise to client’s business objectives. The Optiro name is derived from the term “OPTImising ResOurces”.
In 2020, Snowden was acquired by Datamine. In 2021, Optiro was also acquired by Datamine. The Snowden and Optiro businesses were then merged to create the Snowden Optiro brand.
Our logo
The Snowden Optiro logo is derived from the unique logos of both Snowden and Optiro, which have a long history.
The Snowden “O” symbolises “global,” “Whole of cycle” and “optimised” – which was a key word for Snowden going back a long way.
It is underscored simply to raise its importance in the context of the word Snowden, which is also why it is pulled out and used as key graphic in most visual treatments.
The ‘hat’ on the Optiro “O” symbolizes a normal distribution curve which is at the heart of risk assessment. Below are some early conceptual sketches that were subsequently scratched.
