When Prof. Hatheron was asked to delineate the history of geostatistics, he objected that such discipline is still too "young" to be treated from a historical point of view. The more and more increasing practical applications requiring newer and newer methodologies would rather suggest the necessity of empha sizing the steps taken and the results obtained up to now. The reason of certain epistemological choices as well as the difficul ties and success in establishing a dialogue with the people most likely to benefit from the results of geostatistics are necessary premises to understand the present status of this discipline. The human bearing of characters of the persons that have introduc ed and studied this science blending theory with economic prac tics is a factor playing a not inconsiderable role in the develop ment of geostatistics. These concepts were the guidelines in organizing the ASI-Geo stat 75. Canada, France and Italy are three different situations in an industrial and academic context, especially in the interac tion between these fields. Yet it was our impression that the time had come to assemble experts, scholars, and other people in terested in geostatistics in order to evaluate its present posi tion on various levels in the different countries and to discuss its future prospects. Prof. Hatheron and Hr. Krige as well as other prominent people were of the same opinion.

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.

Distribution related problems. Variogram related problems. Block variances. Estimation variance. Kriging. Recoverable reserves. Applied simulation. Classification of ore reserves. Check samples and duplicates.

Although aspects of mineral deposit evaluation advantages and disadvantages of each technique are covered in such texts as McKinstry (1948), so that a judgement can be made as to their Peters (1978), Reedman (1979) and Barnes applicability to a particular deposit and the min (1980), no widely available in-depth treatment of ing method proposed or used. Too often, a lack the subject has been presented. It is thus the of this expertise results in the ore-reserve calcula intention of the present book to produce a text tion being undertaken at head-office or, indeed, by the survey department on the mine, and being which is suitable for both undergraduate and treated as a 'number crunching' or geometric postgraduate students of mining geology and exercise divorced from geology. It is essential mining engineering and which, at the same time, that mine ore-reserves are calculated at the mine is of use to those already following a professional by those geologists who are most closely associ career in the mining industry. An attempt has ated with the local geology and who are thus best been made to present the material in such a way able to influence and/or constrain the calculation.