The school’s Ouro Preto campus is the country’s first technician education institution to acquire a Micromine license and incorporate the software into its course offerings to assist students with geological modeling studies as well as mine design and mine planning.

“Students’ knowledge of the application will benefit them in their search for employment,” Ouro Preto mining course coordinator Amilton Bernardino da Silva Filho said.

“Their technical capabilities will differentiate them from other students and make them attractive candidates to future employers.”

Campus professor Reginato Fernandes said the number of companies in the industry using software solutions for greater reliability and safety was rising.

“It is therefore necessary that our students graduate with an understanding of these technological tools to ensure they are well-equipped for the workforce,” he said.

Micromine already has agreements for use of its suite at the University of Sao Paulo, Federal University of Minas Gerais and Lutheran University of Brazil.

The latest version of the software, Micromine 2013, is set for release in the first half of this year.

It will contain new functionality associated with resource estimation and modelling, pit optimisation, annotation layers and scripting as well as new computer-aided design tools.