Who should see what in an exploration company's data

Drill results and early assays are among the most sensitive things an exploration company holds. They also tend to live in a shared folder whose link has been forwarded more times than anyone can count, and in a chat group that still includes a contractor from a past campaign. When a geologist leaves, nobody is quite sure what that person can still open.

The opposite problem is just as common. The finance manager cannot see what a mission is doing, the chief geologist waits for someone to send the latest permit file, and the director has to ask three people for one answer. Both problems have the same cause: spreadsheets, Drive and chat have no shared idea of who works where.

Access should follow the job

The useful question is what each job needs, more than how tightly to lock things down. A geologist needs the permits and missions they are assigned to, and has no reason to see other people’s balances. A finance manager needs every balance and has no reason to open drill logs. A director needs the whole picture and rarely edits it. An outside reviewer needs to read and should change nothing.

Seven roles in FlexiMining

Each role has its own screens and permissions, on the phone and on the web:

• Geologist: assigned permits and missions, points, samples, photos, the map and their own expenses.
• Chief Geologist: all of that, plus planning and validating missions, assigning the team and seeing where everyone is.
• General Director: permits, approvals, spending, reports and the 3D model across every company.
• Administrative Manager: permits, deadlines and spending for their companies, with the geology visible but not editable.
• Academic Reviewer: permits, maps, geology and the 3D model for academic or advisory work, read only.
• Expense Agent: submits field expenses with receipts and follows their own balance.
• Finance Manager: approves spending, releases funds and follows every balance.

A few details are worth checking against your own organisation. Geologists add exploration points, but they do not edit permit details or create missions, and they reach drill holes and the 3D model only if allowed. Chief geologists create and validate missions but do not approve spending. Administrative managers edit permits, validate steps and approve spending, and only view the geology.

The same rules on every screen

Hiding a button in an app is weak protection if the data behind it is still reachable. In FlexiMining, permissions are defined once, in FlexiERP, and apply the same way on the phone and on the web. They are checked by the server, and the app can never show someone more than their role allows. Each person always works under their own account, and no shared master account sits behind the scenes.

Groups get an extra boundary. If you run several companies, each person works in the company they select and sees only its permits, teams and spending, while directors can see them all.

Onboarding follows from the same model. Add an employee and their login, role and team chat are ready straight away, so nobody has to remember which folder to share.

Location and sign-off are questions of their own

Knowing where crews are is useful for coordination and safety, and it is also personal. Only chief geologists and directors see where teams are. Location sharing is opt-in and can be switched off at any time, and the live map is near real time.

Sign-off leaves a trace too. Geologist, chief geologist and director approvals are each kept on record, so when a result is questioned later, you can see who validated it. That is a stronger position than a thread of emails, and a much easier one to show an auditor.