Conversion resources to reserves

Abstract

Assessment of the project’s feasibility involves conversion of the mineral resources to ore reserves which is undertaken with a strong input from the geologists into estimation of the mining and metallurgical factors. In particular, geologists may be responsible for metallurgical characterisation of the ore types assuring that bulk samples are representative and sufficient for conclusive tests. A novel approach to confirm their representativeness is proposed in this chapter. The bulk samples are considered to be representative of the entirety of the studied deposit if they provide good spatial coverage of the deposit, and their composition matches every fifth percentile or, at least, fifth, twenty-fifth, fiftieth, seventy-fifth and ninety-fifth percentiles, of the selective mining unit (SMU) compositions. The compositional representativeness of bulk samples is checked by plotting against histograms of SMU blocks, including comparisons of metal grades and metallurgically deleterious elements.