Upgrading Legacy Mining Resource Management UIs: A Visual Path to the Cloud

A 20-year-old Java Swing interface is currently managing $500 million in gold ore extraction, and the only engineer who understood its underlying logic retired in 2019. This isn't a hypothetical scenario; it is the operational reality for the majority of the world’s Tier-1 mining firms. As the industry shifts toward "Mining 4.0," the friction between modern cloud-based telemetry and brittle, undocumented desktop UIs has become a multi-billion dollar bottleneck. The technical debt in this sector contributes significantly to the $3.6 trillion global technical debt mountain, yet the risk of a "rip and replace" strategy remains prohibitively high.

TL;DR: Upgrading legacy mining resource systems is notoriously difficult due to a 67% lack of documentation and complex, high-stakes workflows. Traditional manual rewrites take 18-24 months and have a 70% failure rate. Replay offers a visual reverse engineering path, converting recorded workflows into documented React code and design systems, reducing modernization timelines from years to weeks and cutting manual effort by 90%.

The High Cost of Stagnation in Resource Management#

The mining industry operates on razor-thin margins where a 1% improvement in resource allocation can result in millions of dollars in annual savings. However, most resource management tools are trapped in legacy environments—Citrix wrappers, aging .NET frameworks, or even terminal emulators. These systems are "black boxes." According to Replay’s analysis, 67% of legacy systems lack any form of functional documentation, meaning the business logic is effectively "trapped" in the UI.

When stakeholders discuss upgrading legacy mining resource software, they often hit a wall. Manual documentation of a single complex screen takes an average of 40 hours. In a typical enterprise suite with 200+ screens, you are looking at years of discovery before a single line of modern code is written. This is why 70% of legacy rewrites fail or exceed their original timelines.

Industry experts recommend a "Visual-First" approach to modernization. Instead of trying to decipher ancient COBOL or Java backends first, architects are now looking at the front-end—the place where the business logic actually manifests for the user—as the source of truth.

Why Upgrading Legacy Mining Resource Systems is Historically Difficult#

Upgrading these systems isn't just about changing a UI; it’s about preserving complex geospatial and logic-heavy workflows. Mining resource management involves:

1. •High-Density Data Grids: Managing drill hole data, blast patterns, and equipment telemetry.
2. •Geospatial Integration: Overlaying resource maps with real-time GPS data.
3. •Offline-First Requirements: Systems must work in remote pits with intermittent connectivity.
4. •Institutional Knowledge: The "rules" of the mine are often hardcoded into the validation logic of the legacy UI.

Video-to-code is the process of capturing these complex interactions through screen recordings and using AI-driven reverse engineering to generate functional React components that mirror the original intent but use modern architecture.

Learn more about the challenges of legacy modernization

The Replay Methodology: From Video to React#

Replay changes the modernization equation by bypassing the manual discovery phase. Instead of hiring a team of analysts to sit with mine operators for six months, you simply record the operators performing their daily tasks.

Step 1: Capture the "As-Is" State#

Users record their workflows in the legacy environment. Replay’s engine analyzes the visual state changes, identifying patterns, data structures, and component boundaries. This is critical for upgrading legacy mining resource UIs because it captures the "hidden" logic that isn't in the source code—like how a specific button remains disabled until three different resource parameters are met.

Step 2: Generate the Component Library#

Replay’s AI Automation Suite extracts the visual elements and converts them into a standardized Design System. This ensures that the new cloud-based UI maintains the high-density information density that mine operators require, without the "clunkiness" of the old framework.

Step 3: Architecture Mapping (Flows)#

Using the "Flows" feature, Replay maps out the architectural journey of the data. This allows architects to see exactly how data moves from a legacy SQL database into a resource allocation grid, providing a blueprint for the new API layer.

Comparison: Manual Rewrite vs. Replay Visual Reverse Engineering#

Technical Implementation: Creating a Modern Resource Grid#

When upgrading legacy mining resource interfaces, the most common requirement is moving from a static, heavy grid (like those found in Delphi or PowerBuilder) to a high-performance, responsive React grid.

Below is an example of a modern, TypeScript-based resource allocation component generated through the Replay workflow. This component replaces an old "Equipment Status" table while maintaining the complex conditional logic extracted from the recording.

typescript
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { DataGrid, GridColDef } from '@mui/x-data-grid';
import { Alert, Chip } from '@replay-design-system/core';

// Types extracted from legacy UI behavior analysis
interface MiningResource {
  id: string;
  assetName: string;
  status: 'active' | 'maintenance' | 'idle';
  currentOutput: number;
  lastServiceDate: string;
  operatorId: string;
}

const ResourceStatusDashboard: React.FC = () => {
  const [resources, setResources] = useState<MiningResource[]>([]);
  const [loading, setLoading] = useState(true);

  // Logic extracted via Replay: "Alert if output drops below 85% of capacity"
  const columns: GridColDef[] = [
    { field: 'assetName', headerName: 'Asset Name', width: 200 },
    { 
      field: 'status', 
      headerName: 'Status', 
      renderCell: (params) => (
        <Chip 
          label={params.value} 
          color={params.value === 'active' ? 'success' : 'warning'} 
        />
      )
    },
    { field: 'currentOutput', headerName: 'Current Output (t/h)', type: 'number', width: 150 },
    {
      field: 'efficiency',
      headerName: 'Efficiency',
      valueGetter: (params) => `${((params.row.currentOutput / 500) * 100).toFixed(1)}%`
    }
  ];

  return (
    <div style={{ height: 600, width: '100%', padding: '20px' }}>
      <h2>Resource Allocation Overview</h2>
      <DataGrid 
        rows={resources} 
        columns={columns} 
        pageSize={10}
        checkboxSelection
        disableSelectionOnClick
      />
    </div>
  );
};

export default ResourceStatusDashboard;

Bridging the Gap with Blueprints#

While the code above provides the UI, the real challenge in upgrading legacy mining resource systems is the state management. Replay’s "Blueprints" feature allows developers to edit the generated code in a visual environment, mapping legacy data endpoints to modern GraphQL or REST APIs without losing the UI's functional integrity.

Automating Design Systems from Legacy Code

Strategic Advantages for Regulated Environments#

Mining is a highly regulated industry, often requiring on-premise deployments or strict adherence to data sovereignty laws. Unlike generic AI coding tools that require sending your entire codebase to a third-party LLM, Replay is built for enterprise security.

• •SOC2 & HIPAA-Ready: Your data remains yours.
• •On-Premise Availability: For mines in remote locations or countries with strict data exit laws, Replay can be deployed within your own VPC.
• •Auditability: Every component generated by Replay is linked back to a "Flow" and a "Recording," providing a clear audit trail of why a certain piece of logic exists.

Handling Complex Geospatial Workflows#

One of the most difficult aspects of upgrading legacy mining resource systems is the transition of 2D/3D visualization tools. Legacy systems often used proprietary C++ libraries to render pit maps. Industry experts recommend transitioning these to WebGL-based frameworks like Deck.gl or Mapbox.

According to Replay’s analysis, the "intent" of these visualizations—such as which heat map colors correspond to ore density—is often lost during manual migrations. By using Replay to record the legacy visualization in action, the platform can generate the configuration objects needed for modern web-based mapping engines.

typescript
// Example: Modernized Geospatial Overlay Config generated from legacy UI visual analysis
export const pitMapConfig = {
  layers: [
    {
      id: 'ore-density-heatmap',
      type: 'heatmap',
      data: '/api/v1/spatial/ore-data',
      threshold: 0.75, // Extracted from legacy "High Grade" toggle
      colorRange: [
        '#f7fbff',
        '#08306b' // Replay identified the specific hex codes used in the legacy tool
      ]
    },
    {
      id: 'vehicle-locations',
      type: 'scatter',
      data: '/api/v1/telemetry/active-assets',
      getPosition: (d: any) => [d.longitude, d.latitude],
      getFillColor: [255, 0, 0]
    }
  ]
};

The Roadmap to Modernization#

If you are tasked with upgrading legacy mining resource management tools, the roadmap should focus on incremental value rather than a "big bang" release.

1. •Inventory & Recording (Week 1-2): Record all critical workflows. Use Replay to categorize them into "High Value/High Risk" and "Low Value/Utility."
2. •Component Extraction (Week 3-5): Use the Replay Library to generate a unified Design System. This ensures that as you modernize different modules, they all share a consistent look and feel.
3. •Flow Mapping (Week 6-8): Define the data contracts. Use Replay Flows to identify which legacy database tables need to be exposed via a new API gateway.
4. •Parallel Deployment (Month 3+): Run the new React-based modules alongside the legacy system. This "Strangler Fig" pattern reduces risk and allows for real-time user feedback.

Frequently Asked Questions#

Is Replay just an AI code generator?#

No. While Replay uses AI, it is a Visual Reverse Engineering platform. Unlike a standard LLM that "guesses" what you want, Replay analyzes real user interactions with your specific legacy software to produce documented, functional code that mirrors your actual business processes.

How does Replay handle air-gapped mining environments?#

Replay offers an On-Premise deployment model. This allows mining companies to run the entire modernization suite within their own secure, air-gapped networks, ensuring that sensitive resource data and intellectual property never leave the site.

Can Replay handle legacy systems with no source code?#

Yes. Because Replay uses visual reverse engineering (video-to-code), it does not require access to the original source code of the legacy application. It treats the UI as the source of truth, making it ideal for upgrading legacy mining resource software where the original code is lost, obfuscated, or written in an obsolete language.

What is the learning curve for my dev team?#

Replay generates standard React and TypeScript code. If your team knows modern web development, they can use Replay. The platform handles the tedious "discovery" and "boilerplate" phases, allowing your senior architects to focus on high-level system design and integration.

Conclusion: The Path Forward#

The era of 24-month manual rewrites is over. For enterprise leaders, the risk of technical debt is no longer just an IT concern—it is an operational liability. By upgrading legacy mining resource management UIs through visual reverse engineering, organizations can reclaim their institutional knowledge, slash their time-to-market, and finally move their most critical operations to the cloud.

The statistics are clear: 70% of legacy rewrites fail. Don't be a statistic. By leveraging the 90% time savings offered by Replay, you can modernize your mining operations in weeks, not years.

Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay