1. A method for onboard and offboard visualization of material characteristics in mining, comprising steps of: providing a voxel representation of a mining area, the voxel representation including a plurality of voxels; comparing at least one voxel of the plurality of voxels to a geological model of the mining area; assigning at least one quantified material characteristic to the at least one voxel based on the geological model of the mining area; wherein the at least one quantified material characteristic is material grade or quality; displaying a visual representation of the at least one voxel and the at least one quantified material characteristic using a visualization tool; identifying the at least one voxel as including a start of dig point based on the visual representation of the at least one quantified material characteristic; and digging at the start of dig point using an excavating machine.