Makati City – 2025 DS GEOVIA User Conference Philippines - “When everyone has access to the cutting-edge technology tools and AI-driver operational insights, what truly sets one operation apart from another?” [Ralph Smith, Global Sales Director, GEOVIA]
---
Today more than ever, artificial intelligence (AI), design software and emerging technologies are increasingly shaping how businesses operate, compete, and manage risk. This is most critical in a high-risk industry like mining.
On December 4, 2025, Paramina International, Inc. hosted the 2025 DS GEOVIA User Conference Philippines at the Makati Diamond Hotel, Makati City. This is a free conference that aims to share presentations, hold meaningful discussions, and provide participants with valuable insights and updates from the field.
The conference is a premier, annual gathering for users of Dassault Systèmes GEOVIA software, bringing together professionals, experts, and industry leaders from the Philippine mining sector to examine the latest advances in sustainable mining through digital transformation and innovation. With GEOVIA specialists from the Philippines and Australia presenting and attendees from all over the Philippines, the event also provided opportunities for engineers and geologists to network and discuss best practices.
The speakers highlighted the newest GEOVIA solutions in shaping the future of mining, featuring papers from Philippine users and mining companies, and underscored that technical personnel on mine sites can benefit from using GEOVIA software in order to optimize operations.
Alfredo S. Cruz, President and CEO of Paramina International, Inc.; Engr. Janice Wayan, Senior Technical Resource Engineer in Paramina International, Inc.; Carlo Matilac, Senior VP, FNI; Grace Y. Tanchee, Business Development Manager in Paramina International, Inc.
Alfredo S. Cruz, President and CEO of Paramina International, Inc., stated in his welcome message, “Your presence here shows your dedication to learning, growing, and staying ahead in the mining industry. Today's program is packed with presentations and discussions and practical insights that are designed to be directly useful to you. You will hear from your fellow GEOVIA users about the usage of the software to optimize operations and overcome challenges in the work. You will also learn about the latest GEOVIA solutions that can help you make better, faster, and more information for reliable decision in your project."
"The theme of this year's conference ‘Partners in Progress: Innovating Sustainable Mining’ emphasizes the power of collaboration and technology in advancing responsible mining practices. By actively engaging today, you will gain knowledge, best practices and inspiration that you can immediately apply in your organization."
Towards a Circular Economy
The event featured keynote speaker, Ralph Smith, GEOVIA Sales Expert and Managing Director of Global Sales partnership of Dassault Systèmes, with his keynote speech on "Access the next generation with Dassault Systèmes". With over 25 years of experience in mining and infrastructure, Mr. Smith offers solid expertise in mine planning, design, feasibility study and large-scale project delivery across Australia, Africa, Asia, and Europe. He shared his insight on how technology and collaboration are shaping the future of sustainable mining, particularly how AI will impact or influence operations in mining.
He said, "In a world where AI can generate just about anything, we have endless possibilities of what we can do. The key differentiator is the knowledge that drives and feeds those systems and those applications to give us outcomes.”
“So it's a critical point, the immense potential that AI provides us is only going to be as effective as the knowledge it is based on.”
“...Around the world we have sort of seen geopolitically in the last 12 or 8 months, or ever since COVID, right? We have been challenged in supply chains, [and] we have seen different government entities re-shift their focus of different critical minerals. We have seen the drive to take on ownership or sovereignty-driven decisions around different countries to that because of the weight of where some of that is centered.”
“And to be able to accelerate, a lot of this development in different countries, that may not have been adopting those minerals or focusing on them in the past, is going to be our license to operate. How do we ensure that we rapidly expose the industry, but liaise with communities, investors, all key stakeholders and provide confidence about what we do? And that's really going to be through visibility of execution excellence, providing transparency, providing that ability…”
“What we are really driving is that sustainable, minimizing waste, recycling by-products, producing third-party products, so that we are contributing more wholly to a sustainable environment, on moving towards a more circular economy.”
“Now picture one of the world's most advanced mining operations. Autonomous trucks crisscrossing the terrain, AI-driven models, fine tuning, extracting in real time. The global teams collaborating through an immersive virtual twin of an operation. This is no longer science fiction. This is a competitive baseline. In such a highly digitized and optimized environment, a question arises.”
“When everyone has access to the cutting-edge technology tools and AI-driver operational insights, what truly sets one operation apart from another? It's not sophistication of the technology. Sure, the richness of the ore body plays a big, important role, but more importantly the real competitive advantage lies in ore body knowledge and how companies manage its inherent risk.”
“To achieve business targets, a collective knowledge and know-how, the intelligence that empowers the innovation, the intellectual property that allows the operation to perform smarter, safer responsibly and more sustainably than even before.”
---
Other speakers in the conference include:
❏ Min Liang, GEOVIA Industry Process Consultant and Senior Specialist with a presentation titled "Smart, Accurate, and Efficient -- Model Geology on 3DExperience Platform";
❏ Amer Christian Tolentino, Senior Technical Resources Engineer in Paramina International, Inc. with a report on "Parametric Designing with Surface Mine Designer";
❏ Carlo Matilac, Senior Vice President for Operations in Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc. (FNI) who gave a presentation on "Applying R.A. No. 12253 or the 'Enhanced Fiscal Regime for Large-Scale Metallic Mining Act' to the Whittle Pit Optimization of the Ipilan Nickel Corp. M1 Deposit";
❏ Daryl Suarez, Technical Resource Engineer in Paramina International, Inc., with a presentation titled "Enhancing Surpac Capabilities through Python Integration";
❏ David Gotera of TVI Resource Development Philippines Inc., who discussed "Geotechnical Model Reconstruction from Combined Domain Mapping and Drilling Data for Open Pit Slope Stabilization Part 2";
❏ Kim Leo Mañacap, Technical Resource Engineer in Paramina International Inc., lectured about "DSLS Explained: A Guide to Dassault Systèmes License Server Management";
❏ and Engr. Janice Wayan, Senior Technical Resource Engineer in Paramina International, Inc. who gave an update titled "What's New? 2026".
At the end of the conference, Grace Tanchee, Business Development Manager in Paramina International, Inc., mentioned in her closing remarks that this conference aims to highlight what is to come in the industry, and most importantly, that we learn from the experiences of our fellow professionals.
“We share knowledge,” she said. “Why? Because in mining, while it looks deceptively simple from the outside, I mean if you are not from the industry, it looks like you're just digging... Taking the earth, right?”
“But in truth, what I've learned from this industry is that mining is a very difficult and high-risk industry. It is full of intricate nuances, processes, and estimates that you have to get right in order to achieve your goals. And you also need a lot of continuous improvement. So, I hope with this conference we help you in achieving the goal of facing those kinds of challenges and give you an advantage and lead towards your success.”
---
About the company: Paramina International, Inc. has 29 years of experience in the mining industry. Their team has strong technical orientation and experience which enables them to competently handle planning, management, and execution of complex underground mining projects. They deliver quality work with precision and innovation.
To know more about Paramina and Dassault Systèmes GEOVIA products, visit https://paramina.com/.
---
Photo credit: Marcelle P. Villegas
