“Space RS unveiled XTANT, its integrated mine planning platform, developed through a systems engineering approach and AI integration, to mining engineers and mining executives from leading mining operations across the world. Available from 31ˢᵗ August 2026 to all active COMET licence holders.”
LUXEMBOURG · 6 AUGUST 2026
On Friday, 31st July, Dr. Brett King, developer of the COMET Optimal Scheduler software and founder of COMET Strategy, hosted the ‘Apocalypse’ the annual Official COMET Strategy Meeting, a global online gathering held for COMET users and senior mining industry professionals. Connecting participants from around the world (e.g., Chile, Canada, Africa, Australia) in real time, the meeting brought together several mine planning specialists and senior managers from some of the world’s leading mining operations.
Within the programme, Dr. King allocated time for Dr. Carlos D. Espejel, CEO of Space RS, to present XTANT COMET Studio, the first application of XTANT, Space RS’s integrated mine planning ecosystem developed with a systems engineering approach. Dr. King and Dr. Espejel co-presented the formal technology alliance between COMET Strategy and Space RS: a partnership that connects COMET’s Optimal Scheduler to XTANT’s platform architecture, making the methodology available within a modern, integrated software environment with AI for the first time.
The session included a demonstration of XTANT COMET Studio’s core capabilities: a three-dimensional mine model with year-by-year extraction sequence progression, scenario analysis and AI capabilities: for the first time, showing how COMET mine planning scenario results translate into a visible, traceable and dynamic 3D environment.
“Today, a mine planning team uses a different tool for each phase of the planning cycle: one for the geological model, another for final pit optimisation, another for long-term scheduling, another for the short-term plan, with no traceability or optimisation continuity across them. XTANT was built to unify that workflow, ensuring data control, traceability and integrated optimisation to maximise asset value throughout the entire mine planning cycle: full data integration across every phase, and AI to analyse and develop multiple new scenarios.”
DR. CARLOS D. ESPEJEL · CEO, SPACE RS
XTANT is Space RS’s answer to a structural problem that has persisted in mine planning for decades. It is not a new tool to add to the stack. It is an integrated ecosystem designed to replace the stack.
ENGINEERING METHODOLOGY
A systems engineering approach, applied from space & aeronautics to the mine planning cycle
XTANT was not designed the way conventional mining software is built: feature by feature, tool by tool, in response to individual workflow demands. It was designed using a Systems Engineering approach: the methodology that governs the development of complex aerospace and defence programmes, and the foundation of Space RS’s own technical discipline.
Systems Engineering starts from a declared mission objective and decomposes it into the functions required to achieve it. Every component, every interface and every feedback loop is defined in relation to that objective, not as a standalone capability. Applied to mine planning, the mission objective is unambiguous: maximise the value (NPV) of the mineral deposit across its complete planning lifecycle. Every XTANT application is a functional node serving that objective. The shared financial, processing, Geotech, operational constraints are not integration features added after the fact. They are architectural requirements, derived from the mission from the start.
This is what distinguishes XTANT from a software suite that covers the same functions. A suite can be disassembled. A system cannot, because its value lives in the connections.
AVAILABILITY & ACCESS
Immediate access for active COMET licence holders, from 31st August
XTANT COMET Studio is a desktop application designed to run locally on servers and on the cloud. It will be available from space-rs.com/xtant starting 31st August 2026.
All users with a valid COMET licence may access XTANT COMET Studio by completing a short form on space-rs.com/xtant.