This simple equation is possibly one of the most influential and important drivers of the mining industry and yet most people working with resource companies have never heard of it […]
Circa 1993…. An adaptation
‘Twas the night before Xmas and… My new HP Apollo 9000-725 just arrived…. A workstation for estimation and database to drive. The programmers were waiting in their room air conditioned […]
The Truth About Estimation #6 – The Domain Dilemma.
It had to happen. There’s no way to avoid it and still derive reasonable and robust grade predictions. We must talk about statistics. I’ll try and be gentle, make it […]
The truth about estimation #5 – Nothing is wrong with my model!
So, you think you understand the geology and your data is all ready to go. You’ve spent days, weeks, months drilling, sampling, logging and interpreting. The CEO is breathing down […]
The truth about estimation #4 – How to interpret a drill program (for mine and resource geologists)
Here’s a central truth. Geology is the single most important aspect of resource estimation. It beats geostatistics. It defines sampling requirements. It control sample quality. Get the geology wrong and […]
The Reconciliation Myth #9 – When in doubt…. scream and shout
What is ore? It’s a word I’ve tried to eliminate from my vocabulary because it’s hard to pin down. One man’s (or woman’s) ore is another’s waste and vice versa. […]
The truth about estimation #3 – How to log a drill hole (for mine and resource geologists)
When I first walked into Mt Isa as a young graduate geologist I’d seen a total of 4-5 diamond drill holes in my entire life. One of those was from […]
The Reconciliation Myth #8 – Echoes in the wells of silence.
Question… When is an accurate estimate of tonnes and grade insufficient? Answer… When you get the geometry and location wrong. Continuing from the last reconciliation post (Hello Darkness My Old […]
The Reconciliation Myth # 7 – Hello Darkness My Old Friend
As a younger geologist, I remember being perplexed by many ‘industry standard’ practices. Take, for example, sampling broken stocks by climbing up the rill, bucket or sample bag in hand, […]
The truth about estimation #2 – Searching… Searching… Searching…
DON’T SEARCH TO THE RANGE OF THE VARIOGRAM How many times do we need to stumble over this one folks? I was just reading yet another report of a project […]