Evaluation of Mineral Reserves: A Simulation Approach (Applied Geostatistics)

This book addresses the practice of geostatistical simulation to evaluation of mineral reserves, prediction of recovered tonnages and mineral grades and the impact of mining dilution. Such prediction is absolutely critical for mine planning and investment decisions, yet it cannot be made on maps directly interpolated from present data. Various dilution factors need to be introduced to account for the support effect: mining unit volumes are vastly different from composite data unit volumes the information effect: future selection of ore/waste will be based on vastly different data than that presently available. Geostatistical simulations allow a rigorous evaluation of these effects on reserves recovery. These stochastic simulations have the potential to be for the mining industry what a wind tunnel is for aircraft design. This book is written by two expert geostatisticians--Journel is the pioneer of mining geostatistics--and established academics.