MINE-FORECAST: Software for the financial evaluation of mineral exploration projects

The MINE-FORECAST software package has been developed to assist the exploration geologist and junior mining company to evaluate the potential economics of projects at an early stage. Important consideration in developing the software has been to ensure a user-friendly format to encourage computer novices to carry out evaluations while retaining maximum flexibility to allow sophisticated sensitivity studies and for modifications to accommodate non-standard projects. MINE-FORECAST operates within the environment of LOTUS 1 -2-3 as a self-loading macro. The user is presented with a variety of menu choices and input prompts which allow for the rapid build-up of a model of the project in worksheet format. The resulting worksheet model can be saved for further modifications using the many tools packaged with LOTUS 1 -2-3.