AN OVERVIEW OF THE DIGITAL DATA FLOW IN MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATION

Digital data analyses are a common practice in the mineral industry (exploration and mining) and are important to research in related areas. The digital geological data including soil geochemistry, drill-hole log data (collar, survey, assay, lithology, alteration etc), topography, and other geological attributes of the samples are accessed using advanced geological/mining and GIS software tools. The geological/mining software tools are similar to the traditional advanced GIS software tools but use other tools specifically designed for mineral resource modeling and mine design.

A variety of data are used at different stages of mineral resource modeling and estimation. In some cases, raster data sets including remote-sensing data are also included to map the geological features on the surface. From the digital data a model may be created which provides an approximate three dimensional view and synthesis of the mineralized lithological units and other geological features such as faults, dykes, etc. These models are later used in the resource estimation and validation processes. A three dimensional network of solids are created to form the block model and the alphaneumeric data generated are saved during the estimation process. The geological attributes are estimated from interpolation of the drill-hole data or transfer of information from other sources of data.

The surfaces and the three-dimensional solid models representing geological features and three-dimensional block models cumulatively constitute the digital mineral resource model of the deposit under consideration. Often more than one software tool is used to build a more comprehensive geological and resource model of the deposit. The flow of data from the site to the computer and software to software is complex and must be handled carefully in mineral resource modeling and estimation to minimize the potential for error.