Introduction to Mining

Lecture Unit 11 Resource Calculations

Colorado School of Mines

Mining Engineering Department

Block Modeling

Inverse Distance

Kriging

MineSite Demo CD

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Inverse Distance Squared

0.644 0.023 1.365 0.258 0.165 0.409

+ + + + +
(260) 2 (158) 2 (212) 2 (158) 2 (292) 2 (212) 2
g= = 0.41%
1 1 1 1 1 1
+ + + + +
(260) 2 (158) 2 (212) 2 (158) 2 (292) 2 (212) 2

Geostatistics
A statistical method of calculating reserves.

Initial development done in South Africa, Dr. Danie Krige.

Formalized in France, Dr. G. Matheron.

Began gaining acceptance in the US during the 1970s.

Geostatistics make use of two basic tools:

1. the variogram used to measure spatial correlation

2. kriging a sample weighting technique

Kriging can be used to calculate block values as well as the

estimation variance.

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Variogram

The variogram is the geostastical tool used to measure the

degree of spatial correlation between samples in the region
being studied.

If the variable being considered is a regionalized variable, then

samples taken close to each other on average will be more
similar than samples taken far apart.

By definition, the value of the variogram 2(h) for a given

distance h, is the square of the expected difference between the
values of the samples separated by distance h:

2(h) = E[(Z(x) Z(x+h)]2

Experimental semivariogram

From the data at hand, the experimental semivriogram may be

calculated by:

1 n(h)
(h) =
n(h) i =1
[Z(x i ) Z(x i + h)]2

For a given distance h, the values of all samples which are

separated by h are subtracted from each other, and the result is
squared, accumulated, and divided by the number of pairs
found. This gives one point on the semivariogram. The
distance h is increased and the process repeated.

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Variogram Models

Spherical variogram model for a copper deposit.

Kriging
The value at point V having a true and unknown value Z(V) is
to be estimated from n samples surrounding point V of known
values Z(xi )(i = 1,...,n). The objective of point kriging is
to find the weights i (i=l,...,n) which will make the equation:

n
Z* = i Z(x i )
i =1

the best estimator of Z(V), where best is defined as:

1) The minimum variance linear estimator

2) Unbiased- meaning on average the value computed for

Z* should be equal to the true value of Z(V), not
systematically higher or lower.

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Kriging
The estimation variance of Z(V) by Z* is given by:

e2 = 2v - 2 i vx i + i j x i x j
i i j

where :
2v = the variance of a point V in the sample population.
vx i = the covariance between point V and sample X i .
x i x j = the covariance between samples X i and X j .

The unbiased condition requires:

i
i =1

Kriging

The problem of ordinary point kriging can thus be stated as:

minimize : e2
subject to :
i
i =1

The Lagrange principle states that to minimize a function F()

subject to the constraint that function G() = 0,
the function H(,) = F() + G() should be minimized
where is a new unknown Lagrange multiplier.

Function H(, ) can be minimized by setting the partial

derivatives of H with respect to and equal to zero and solving
for the unknown i's and .

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 Kriging
This gives a linear system of n+1 equations with n+1 unknowns
which may be rewritten as:

j
j xi x j + = vx i (i = 1,..., n)

i
i =1

Kriging

[] * [A ] = [B]
X1X1 X1X 2 ... X1X n 1 1 VX1
X X X X ... X X 1 2 VX 2
2 1 2 2 2 n

. . .

. * . = .
. . .

X n X1 X n X 2 ... X n X n 1 n VX n
1 1 1 0 1

All of the 's can be obtained from the variogram and the
unknown weights (i's) and) and the Lagrange multiplier () can
be solved for by [A] = []-1[B].

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3- Dimensional Orebody Construction

3- Dimensional Orebody Construction

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3- Dimensional Orebody Construction

3- Dimensional Orebody Construction

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3- Dimensional Orebody Construction

6. Ore Reserve Estimation Part 2

Ore: A natural aggregation of one or more solid minerals

that can be mined, processed and sold at a profit.

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The key concept is 'extraction leading to a profit'. For engineers,
profits can be expressed in simple equation form as:

Profits = Revenues - Costs (1.1)

The revenue portion of the equation can be written as

Revenues = Materials sold (units) * Price/unit (1.2)

The costs can be similarly expressed as

Costs = Material sold (units) * Cost/unit (1.3)

Combining the equations yields

Profits = Material sold (units) * (Price/unit- Cost/unit) (1.4)

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Historic Gold Prices in 2005 US $/oz

Mining Magazine, September 2007

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