Forecasting Recoverable Ore Reserves and Their Uncertainty at Morila Gold Deposit, Mali: An Efficient Simulation Approach and Future Grade Control Drilling

• Published in: Mathematical geosciences 2013-11, Vol.45 (8), p.1005-1020
• Main Authors: Peattie, Richard, Dimitrakopoulos, Roussos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Case studies; Chemistry and Earth Sciences; Computer Science; Data mining; Deposits; Drilling; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Forecasting; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Gold; Hydrogeology; Mineral reserves; Physics; Quality; Reserves; Selectivity; Simulation; Special Issue; Statistics for Engineering; Uncertainty
• ISSN: 1874-8961; 1874-8953
• DOI: 10.1007/s11004-013-9478-x

Forecasting of recoverable reserves aims to predict the tonnages and grades that will be recovered at the time of mining. The main concern in this forecasting is the imprecision in the selection of ore/waste resulting from both the so-called information effect or information that becomes available during grade control, and the support effect or mining selectivity during mining. Existing approaches to recoverable reserve estimation account for mining selectivity; however, they largely ignore the information effects from future data becoming available through grade control practices. An application at the Morila gold deposit, Mali, is utilized in this paper to document a new simulation-based approach for recoverable reserve forecasting that incorporates the potential effects of future grade control data. This accounts for the information effect as well as changes in data quantity and quality over time. In addition, the case study at the Morila mine elucidates the use of a newer, very efficient, and practical alternative to traditional simulation techniques. This direct block simulation method forecasts recoverable reserves directly into the selective mining unit (support) size under consideration. The case study demonstrates the practical uncertainty assessment of the recoverable reserves within the deposit, so that expected inaccuracies in the selection of ore /waste can be accounted for. This allows for fully informed mining decisions to be made that incorporate the effects of information and selectivity while quantifying the potential impact of uncertainty on the mine operation and its final economic outcome.