Fitting the variogram model of nickel laterite using root means square error in Morowali, Central Sulawesi

Abstract

Abstract. The nickel commodity is getting popular due to its role as one of the raw materials for battery manufacture. It is estimated that this trend will continue for the next 2 - 3 years and reaching its peak when the factories that process the raw material for electric vehicle batteries are established. For this reason, the nickel mining companies are competing to explore new nickel deposits. The research location is a nickel mine in Sulawesi. The purpose of this study was to determine the most suitable Nickel variogram model based on root means square error (RMSE). To obtain an accurate number of resources, it is necessary to apply an accurate and validated estimation method to gain data that are in line with the actual conditions. Therefore, this study uses a geostatistical method that takes into account the spatial relationship of each data using a variogram which is validated by the cross-validation method and RMSE. From the results of the RSME analysis, the most suitable variogram model for nickel content in the limonite and saprolite layers is the exponential variogram model. In addition, the values of root mean square error for nickel content in the limonite and saprolite layers were 0.022 and 0.098 respectively.