Presents an applied approach to the estimation of mineral resources/reserves. It is suitable for any university or mining school that offers courses on mineral resource/reserve estimation. It will also be valuable for professional mining and geological engineers and geologists working with mineral exploration companies.

Mineral resource estimation has changed considerably in the past 25 years: geostatistical techniques have become commonplace and continue to evolve; computational horsepower has revolutionized all facets of numerical modeling; mining and processing operations are often larger; and uncertainty quantification is becoming standard practice. Recent books focus on historical methods or details of geostatistical theory. So there is a growing need to collect and synthesize the practice of modern mineral resource estimation into a book for undergraduate students, beginning graduate students, and young geologists and engineers. It is especially fruitful that this book is written by authors with years of relevant experience performing mineral resource estimation and with years of relevant teaching experience. This comprehensive textbook and reference fills this need.

Developments in Geomathematics, 2: Geostatistical Ore Reserve Estimation focuses on the methodologies, processes, and principles involved in geostatistical ore reserve estimation, including the use of variogram, sampling, theoretical models, and variances and covariances. The publication first takes a look at elementary statistical theory and applications; contribution of distributions to mineral reserves problems; and evaluation of methods used in ore reserve calculations. Concerns cover estimation problems during a mine life, origin and credentials of geostatistics, precision of a sampling campaign and prediction of the effect of further sampling, exercises on grade-tonnage curves, theoretical models of distributions, and computational remarks on variances and covariances. The text then examines variogram and the practice of variogram modeling. Discussions focus on solving problems in one dimension, linear combinations and average values, theoretical models of isotropic variograms, the variogram as a geological features descriptor, and the variogram as the fundamental function in error computations. The manuscript ponders on statistical problems in sample preparation, orebody modeling, grade-tonnage curves, ore-waste selection, and planning problems, the practice of kriging, and the effective computation of block variances. The text is a valuable source of data for researchers interested in geostatistical ore reserve estimation.

“Everything” sums up what must be considered for a properly documented property evaluation. Less than 30% of the projects that are developed in the minerals industry yield the return on investment that was projected from the project feasibility studies. The tools described in this handbook will greatly improve the probability of meeting your projections and minimizing project execution capital cost blowout that has become so prevalent in this industry in recent years. Mineral Property Evaluation provides guidelines to follow in performing mineral property feasibility and evaluation studies and due diligence, and in preparing proper documents for bankable presentations. It highlights the need for a consistent, systematic methodology in performing evaluation and feasibility work. The objective of a feasibility and evaluation study should be to assess the value of the undeveloped or developed mineral property and to convey these findings to the company that is considering applying technical and physical changes to bring the property into production of a mineral product. The analysis needs to determine the net present worth returned to the company for investing in these changes and to reach that decision point as early as possible and with the least amount of money spent on the evaluation study. All resources are not reserves, nor are all minerals an ore. The successful conclusion of any property evaluation depends on the development, work, and conclusions of the project team. The handbook has a diverse audience: • Professionals in the minerals industry that perform mineral property evaluations. • Companies that have mineral properties and perform mineral property feasibility studies and evaluations or are buying properties based on property evaluation. • Financial institutions, both domestic and overseas, that finance or raise capital for the minerals industry. • Consulting firms and architectural and engineering contractors that utilize mineral property feasibility studies and need standards to follow. • And probably the most important, the mining and geological engineering students and geology and economic geology students that need to learn the standards that they should follow throughout their careers.

This proceedings book presents research papers discussing the latest developments and findings in the fields of mining, machinery, automation and environmental protection. It includes contributions from authors from over 20 countries, with backgrounds in computer science, mining engineering, technology and management, and hailing from the government, industry and academia. It is of interest to scientists, engineers, consultants and government staff who are responsible for the development and implementation of innovative approaches, techniques and technologies in the mineral industries. Covering the latest advances in fundamental research, it also appeals to academic researchers.