Resource Model

Figure 1. Resource Model Parameters

A resource model is a spatial analysis of the deposit which focuses on element grades, lithology, economic
estimation, and geotechnical characteristics. A resource model must consist but not limited to
topographic data, drilling data, Geologic Interpretation, and block model and Estimation. The parameters
mentioned above are the common parameters in most metallic and nonmetallic deposits that produce a
good resource estimate. A complete list of parameters are found in the JORC code.

A resource is classified thru a JORC Code. The Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results,
Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (‘the JORC Code’) is a professional code of practice that sets
minimum standards for Public Reporting of minerals Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore
Reserves.

The JORC Code provides a mandatory system for the classification of minerals Exploration Results, Mineral
Resources and Ore Reserves according to the levels of confidence in geological knowledge and technical
and economic considerations in Public Reports.

Public Reports prepared in accordance with the JORC Code are reports prepared for the purpose of
informing investors or potential investors and their advisors. They include, but are not limited to, annual
and quarterly company reports, press releases, information memoranda, technical papers, website
postings and public presentations of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves estimates.
The JORC Code was first published in 1989, with the most recent revision being published late in 2012.
Since 1989 and 1992 respectively, it has been incorporated in the Listing Rules of the Australian and New
Zealand Stock Exchanges, making compliance mandatory for listing public companies in Australia and New
Zealand.
 Figure 2. JORC Code, 2012 Edition

Resource classifications: Measured - highest confidence

Indicated - medium
Inferred - low
Geological Potential - lowest

Ore Reserves classification: Proved - highest

Probable - medium
Possible - low

To be JORC compliant, only those blocks classified as proved and probable reserves should be considered
in the ore reserves reporting. As a rule, measured resource blocks if found to be economical to mine will
be categorized as proved ore reserve while indicated resource becomes probable ore reserve.
Topographic Data
This Data Set consists coordinates XY&Z (East, North, & Elevation) to render current ground configuration
and may be used in estimation of total volume of materials available at the ground.

Table 1. Coordinates; Northing, Easting, and Elevation

Figure 3. Surface rendering from survey points triangulations using GEMCOM

Note: It is very important to establish a control point as reference during setup of survey equipment to
ensure accuracy. Moreover, control points must be regularly close triangulated or error checked to ensure
no issues in offsetting of points to the actual ground coordinates.

Drilling Data
This Data Set Consist Information of drill holes
with information on coordinates, lithology, and
Assay.

Drill hole points are determined thru gridding

within the perimeter of the identified resource
potential from reconnaissance survey,
physiological and geochemical analysis on
outcrops and other mineralization indicators on
the surface. Usually for exploration stage a 100
by 100 meter interval distances (Inferred) of drill
holes are made, then increasing its potential
from 100 by 100 meter intervals to 25 by 25
meters intervals (Measured) when there will be
an approximate variability of drill hole results at
15% max only of the whole data when new
results are included. Interestingly, intervals may
be closer in production purposes like 10 by 10
meters in some nickel laterite deposits to make
Figure 4. Plotted drill holes within the MPSA
a more accurate block grades.
boundary of a Nickel laterite deposit

Lithology, this provides basic information on what type of mineral observed in the core usually in per
meter. For example, laterite ore deposit mineral types are Limonite (high Fe, low Ni), Saprolite (low Fe,
high Ni), Transition (high Fe and Ni), Waste/ Bedrock (low Fe and Ni) (this may vary in various companies),
Air (void spaces), and float (Infill waste material) are included in the data set which will be reflected in the
block models material recovery percentage usually derived arithmetically from the total length of mineral
types per meter of a drill hole. Other physiological characteristics may be included in the drill hole data.
 Figure 5. Core logging
Assaying provides the geochemical composition of the cores such as Au, Ag, Ni, Fe, Cu, Cr and etc. that
are useful in the determination of the ore reserve from the delineated potential mineral resource. Aside
from the metal of interests, other associate elements are also included in assaying such as Co, S, Ca and
etc. that are useful in determination of the characteristic of the deposit that may be useful in correlation
studies to the metal of interests, determination of possible hazards (chemical reactions, strength of
materials, and among others), and used for investigation of other potential resource which makes mines
produce more than 1 product. Moreover, moisture content and specific gravity is also important to include
which is useful in the determination of the volume and weight of the measured ore reserve and mineral
resource.
Table 2. Header; Survey; Lithology; Assay
Geologic Interpretation
Usually it is the process of determining geologic features such as faults, tilts, folds, and rock layers. In
resource modeling the ultimate goal is the delineation of minerals in a potential reserve by establishing
the rock layers or mineralization zones of deposit which depicts illustratively also the extent of ore zones
to its host rock.

Figure 6. Geologic Interpretation

This process requires a CAD system that would aid geologists and scientists to interpret data by making
zones of mineralization. For example, Gemcoms (Gems) is a Cad System developed by Dasault Sytems
Geovia, is a useful tool in resource modeling, blast designs, and mine planning. Importing drill hole data
and topographic data to the Gemcom software, geologic interpretation of the ore zones would be created.
 Figure 7. Geologic Interpretation of a Nickel Laterite Deposit or Zones.

Block Modeling and Estimation

Grade interpolation is resource analysis of drill hole data with the geologic interpretation. Reserve
estimate is the statistical analysis of data based on the spatial relationship between data values. The
assumption is made that sample or data values are affected both by location and relationship with the
surrounding data. Usually, there are three common types of reserve or grade estimation which are the
Nearest Neighbor Method, Inverse Distance Method, and Ordinary Krigging Method.

Nearest Neighbor Method

The nearest neighbor method assigns grade values to blocks from the nearest sample point to the block.
Closest sample gets a weight of one; all others get a weight of zero.
Advantages

 Easy to understand
 Easy to calculate manually
 Easy to use as a repeatable standard
 When automated, reasonably fast in 2D
Disadvantages

 Local discontinuities are unrealistic

 Produces biased estimates of grade and tonnage above an ore waste
cut-off. Which is called the volume variance relationship i.e. the
variability of the grade distribution depends on the volume of samples. Large volume samples mean small
variability whereas small volume samples mean large variability.

Figure 8. Assignment of block grades of Block Grids superimposed in drill holes

Figure 7. shows the application of a computerized polygonal interpolation to the composited values shown as level
5140. If the block contains a hole, it is assigned that value. Blocks without holes are assigned the value of the
nearest hole within a 270 ft radius. For blocks having centers outside of this radius a value of 0 has been assigned.
The shaded area has been interpolated as mineralization ≥ 0.6% Cu.

Inverse Distance Method

The inverse-distance weighted procedure is versatile, easy to program and understand, and is fairly
accurate under a wide range of conditions (Lam, 1983). Using this method, the property at each unknown
location for which a solution is sought is given by:

Where Pi is the property at location i; Pj is the property at sampled location j; Dij is the distance from i to
j; G is the number of sampled locations; and n is the inverse-distance weighting power. The value of n, in
effect, controls the region of influence of each of the sampled locations. As n increases, the region of
influence decreases until, in the limit, it becomes the area which is closer to point I than to any other.
When n is set equal to zero, the method is identical to simply averaging the sampled values. As n gets
larger, the method approximates the Voronoi tessellation procedure (Watson and Philip, 1985). Usually,
the value of n is set arbitrarily.

Advantages

 Computationally simple
 Exponent gives flexibility. The same estimation procedure can be used to create very smooth
estimates (like a moving average) or very variable estimates (like nearest neighbor)

Disadvantages

 Preferential sampling makes estimates unreliable

 Requires decision on which sample to use
 Extremes create large halos of great estimates
 Choice of exponent introduces arbitrariness
Figure 9. Sample Inverse Distance Method
Ordinary Krigging Method
Kriging is the geostatistical estimation method
developed to provide the optimal linear and unbiased
estimates. It depends on expressing spatial variation of
the property in terms of the variogram (or correlogram),
and it minimizes the prediction errors, which are then
estimated. In an estimated block model, kriging
considers covariances among the samples, which will
then reduce the weights of a cluster of samples,
minimizing the effect of variable sample spacing. The
effectiveness of kriging depends on the correct input of
parameters that describe the variogram (or
semivariogram) model because kriging is robust but also
fragile, even a naive selection of parameters will provide
an estimate comparable to many other grid estimation procedures.
How it works
Ordinary Kriging is a highly reliable method and usually recommended for most data sets, it assume that
the data set has a stationary variance but also non-stationary mean value within search radius. This
method first uses the geostatistical grids that are normally grid centered with output results located at
points. The input data that is used in kriging (e.g. drillhole samples) should be presented with specific
locations such that they correspond to the grid points x and y locations (northings and eastings like in the
figure shown on the right).
Kriged estimates should not be systematically higher or lower than the true value used, which is why
kriging weights are calculated by solving a set of equations shown below that minimize the variance of
the estimation error.

Kriging uses a set of simultaneous linear equations for each point on the output grid such that all of the
actual input data is optimally weighted according to distance using the semivariogram. These equations
are often written using matrix notation, the correlation matrix on the left hand side records all of the
redundancies between the samples, and ensures that the kriging weights considers sample clustering.

Kriged estimates can be represented graphically in geostatistical grids shown below to provide geological
knowledge. The key to kriging is not just to provide interpretation but rather optimized interpretation,
that is why modifications can be done to create variations in terms of anisotropy and the inclusion of
trends, this shown by the graphical estimates below according to the continuity directions that were
followed in variorums.
Advantages of Kriging

 Very good in local and global estimates.

 Geological knowledge is captured in variogram.
 Statistical approach allows uncertainty to be quantified.
Disadvantages of kriging

 Not easy to comprehend.

 Computationally intensive: hardware, software.
 Flexibility and power created by many parameters also create arbitrariness and more possibilities for
error.
to figure the variance, yet it is ordinarily calculated as half the difference in f squared. Once the
experimental variogram is figured, the following step is followed o characterize a model variogram. A
model variogram is a straightforward function that models the pattern in the experimental variogram.

Semi-variograms are used to present statistical results as a function of distance and direction.
2 types of Semi-Variogram
• Linear semi-variograms
– calculated from drill hole or traverse workspaces. Relationship between sample pairs
down-hole
• 3-D semi-variograms
– calculated from data extracted from a workspace into an extraction file.
– Calculated along a 3-D vector defined by an azimuth and dip, within defined tolerances

Linear Semi-variogram
The relationship between sample pairs is determined directly from their sequential position along each
traverse or drill hole, regardless of the drill hole direction or orientation.

Data is taken directly from tables in the traverse or drill hole workspace.
Sill = constant (and max) average difference between samples at long distances
Range = distance beyond which there is no more increase in variance
Nugget Effect - Co = erratic or random part of the variation of the data.
Can be natural (corresponds to abrupt changes of the mineralization over small distances) or human (poor
sample reduction or preparation procedures).

Summary
• Semi variograms are used to quantify the spatial continuity of an ore deposit with respect to both
distance and orientation.
• Directions of continuity should match geological observations.
• The model semivariogram should closely fit all lag set points. Assuming all points are equally
important (not a good assumption), the model that minimizes the sum of squared errors, is the
best solution.
• Models used determine kriging parameters for estimating block grades.

Types of block model

Table 3. Types of Block Models; Gemcom Training Manual

References:
- [Link]/mediawiki/[Link]/Geostatistics_and_resource_estimatio
n_techniques
- Gevia Dasault Systems tutorial
- JORC 2012 Edition
- Hustrulid et al, Open Pit Mine Planning and Design, 2013