Mining Industry Legacy Systems: Digitalizing the Pit-to-Port Workflow

The most expensive asset in a modern mining operation isn't the autonomous haul truck or the sub-surface drill rig; it’s the unmapped business logic buried within a 25-year-old terminal screen.

In the mining industry, "Pit-to-Port" is the lifeblood of the business. Yet, for many Tier-1 miners, this workflow is managed by a patchwork of legacy systems—Delphi, PowerBuilder, or green-screen COBOL—that lack documentation, API connectivity, and the original developers who built them. When 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their timelines, the "Big Bang" approach isn't just risky; it’s a threat to operational continuity.

TL;DR: Mining companies can bypass the 18-month "Big Bang" rewrite cycle by using Replay’s visual reverse engineering to extract legacy pit-to-port workflows into documented React components and API contracts in days, not years.

The High Cost of Mining Industry Legacy Systems#

The global technical debt burden has reached a staggering $3.6 trillion. In the mining sector, this debt manifests as "black box" systems that control everything from ore grade tracking to rail logistics. Because 67% of these legacy systems lack any form of up-to-date documentation, modernization projects often devolve into "software archaeology"—expensive, manual efforts to figure out what the code actually does before a single line of new software can be written.

The traditional manual approach to documenting a single legacy screen takes an average of 40 hours. In a complex pit-to-port environment with hundreds of screens for logistics, safety, and grade control, you are looking at years of discovery before you even begin development.

The Modernization Matrix: Comparing Approaches#

💰 ROI Insight: By moving from manual documentation (40 hours/screen) to Replay (4 hours/screen), enterprise mining teams realize a 90% reduction in discovery costs and a 70% average time savings on the total project lifecycle.

From Black Box to Documented Codebase: The Pit-to-Port Workflow#

The pit-to-port sequence involves high-stakes handoffs. If the legacy system managing the rail scheduling logic fails or miscalculates throughput, the entire supply chain grinds to a halt. The challenge is that this logic is often "hard-coded" into the UI behavior of legacy desktop applications.

Replay changes the paradigm. Instead of reading through millions of lines of spaghetti code, you record a real user performing the workflow—such as assigning a grade to a stockpile or clearing a vessel for loading. Replay’s engine analyzes the execution trace and generates the corresponding React components and API contracts.

Step 1: Visual Recording of the Workflow#

The process begins by recording the "Happy Path" and edge cases of the legacy workflow. For a mining operator, this might be the sequence of inputs required to reconcile daily production tons against the mine plan.

Step 2: Extraction and Component Generation#

Replay takes the recording and decomposes it. It identifies the data structures, the state transitions, and the UI layout. It doesn't just "scrape" the screen; it understands the intent.

Step 3: API Contract Synthesis#

Most mining legacy systems lack a RESTful API. Replay generates the API contracts required to bridge the legacy backend with a modern frontend, allowing for a phased migration.

typescript
// Example: Generated API Contract for Stockpile Reconciliation
// This was extracted by Replay from a legacy Delphi terminal workflow

export interface StockpileReconciliation {
  id: string;
  timestamp: string;
  siteId: string;
  oreType: 'HighGrade' | 'MediumGrade' | 'Waste';
  measuredTons: number;
  calculatedTons: number;
  variance: number;
  operatorId: string;
}

/**
 * Automatically generated from Replay Visual Reverse Engineering
 * Source System: Production_v4_Legacy (Delphi)
 * Workflow: Daily Stockpile Update
 */
export async function updateStockpile(data: StockpileReconciliation): Promise<void> {
  const response = await fetch('/api/v1/mining/stockpile/update', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify(data),
  });
  if (!response.ok) throw new Error('Failed to update legacy stockpile data');
}

Bridging the Gap: Modern React Components for Remote Operations#

Mining operations are increasingly managed from Integrated Remote Operations Centers (IROCs). These centers require high-performance, web-based dashboards that legacy desktop apps cannot provide.

By using Replay, the Enterprise Architect can extract the core logic of a legacy logistics screen and instantly generate a modern React component that fits into the company’s new Design System.

tsx
// Example: Generated React Component from a Legacy Rail Scheduling Screen
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Button, Table, StatusBadge } from '@/components/ui-library'; // From Replay Library

export const RailScheduler: React.FC = () => {
  const [trains, setTrains] = useState<any[]>([]);
  
  // Logic preserved from legacy "Train_Master_v2.exe"
  const calculateETAs = (departureTime: string, trackCondition: number) => {
    // Replay extracted this specific business logic from the legacy execution trace
    const baseTravelTime = 480; // minutes
    return baseTravelTime * (1 / trackCondition);
  };

  return (
    <div className="p-6 bg-slate-900 text-white">
      <h2 className="text-2xl font-bold mb-4">Pit-to-Port Rail Scheduler</h2>
      <Table>
        <thead>
          <tr>
            <th>Train ID</th>
            <th>Status</th>
            <th>ETA to Port</th>
            <th>Action</th>
          </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          {trains.map((train) => (
            <tr key={train.id}>
              <td>{train.id}</td>
              <td><StatusBadge status={train.status} /></td>
              <td>{calculateETAs(train.departure, train.trackFactor)} mins</td>
              <td><Button onClick={() => handleDispatch(train.id)}>Dispatch</Button></td>
            </tr>
          ))}
        </tbody>
      </Table>
    </div>
  );
};

⚠️ Warning: Do not attempt to refactor the business logic during the initial extraction. The goal is "Functional Parity." Once Replay has documented the logic and generated the React component, you can refactor with the safety of a documented baseline.

Why Mining Leaders Choose Visual Reverse Engineering#

1. Zero-Disruption Modernization#

In mining, downtime is measured in millions of dollars per hour. Replay allows you to build the modern replacement in parallel by observing the legacy system in production without needing to modify the legacy source code or database schema during the discovery phase.

2. Built for Regulated and Air-Gapped Environments#

Mining operations are often in jurisdictions with strict data sovereignty laws or in remote areas with limited connectivity. Replay is built for these environments:

• •On-Premise Deployment: Keep your proprietary logic within your own network.
• •SOC2 & HIPAA-ready: Enterprise-grade security for sensitive operational data.
• •Audit Trails: Every extracted component is linked back to the original video recording—the ultimate source of truth.

3. Solving the "Expert Drain"#

As the workforce that built the legacy systems of the 90s retires, mining companies are losing their "tribal knowledge." Replay captures this knowledge by documenting the actual workflows of your most experienced operators before they leave the organization.

📝 Note: Replay doesn't just generate code; it generates a Technical Debt Audit. It identifies which parts of your legacy system are actually used, allowing you to decommission 30-40% of unused "ghost features" that typically bloat rewrite projects.

Action Plan: Digitalizing the Pit-to-Port Workflow in 30 Days#

Week 1: Identification & Prioritization#

Identify the three most critical screens in your pit-to-port workflow (e.g., Ore Grade Entry, Rail Scheduling, Vessel Loading). Use Replay to record these workflows being performed by subject matter experts.

Week 2: Automated Extraction#

Run the recordings through the Replay AI Automation Suite. Generate the Blueprints and initial React components. Compare the generated logic against the legacy behavior to ensure 100% functional parity.

Week 3: API Integration & E2E Testing#

Use the generated API contracts to connect your new React components to your middleware or legacy database. Replay automatically generates E2E tests based on the recorded workflows to ensure the new system handles edge cases exactly like the old one.

Week 4: Pilot Deployment#

Deploy the modernized screens to a subset of users in the IROC. Because you saved 70% of the time usually spent on manual documentation and coding, you can spend this week on user training and fine-tuning the UI.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How does Replay handle legacy systems with no source code?#

Replay is platform-agnostic. Because it uses Visual Reverse Engineering (recording the user interaction and analyzing the execution trace), it does not require the original source code. It treats the legacy application as a "black box" and extracts the logic based on inputs, outputs, and state changes.

Can Replay handle complex business logic, or just UI?#

Replay excels at extracting business logic. By analyzing how data changes across a sequence of screens, it identifies the underlying rules (e.g., "If Ore Grade < 2.0, route to Stockpile B"). This logic is then exported as clean, documented TypeScript.

What is the typical time-to-value for a mining enterprise?#

Most mining clients see their first documented, functional React components within 48 hours of their first recording. A full "screen-to-code" migration for a complex workflow typically takes 4-10 days, compared to the 10-12 weeks required for manual reverse engineering.

How does this impact our technical debt?#

It eliminates "Documentary Debt." By creating a "Video as Source of Truth," you ensure that future developers understand why a piece of logic exists. Furthermore, Replay’s Technical Debt Audit helps you identify redundant code paths, often reducing the codebase size by 30% or more during the migration.

---

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay - see your legacy mining screen extracted live during the call.