Rio Tinto buys data system

London-based Rio Tinto is using data access protocol (DAP) technology as a way of managing exploration data.

The technology, provided by Toronto-based Geosoft, allows users to transfer large amounts of data between an Internet or “Intranet” application and a host server. (Intranet is a scaled-down, in-house version of the Internet.) Users are thus able to share geoscientific data both privately, within an organization, and globally, on the Internet.

Rio Tinto launched its data-managing system in 2002, after it was used in a pilot project with Kennecott Exploration.

“With the new system, instead of spending weeks gathering and sorting historic exploration data, geoscientists will be able to access the data at their desktops in a matter of minutes,” says William Whalen, Kennecott’s manager of information technology.