『Abstract
Ore reserve estimation and resource prediction are important
aspects of deposit exploration and mining. The cutoff has great
influence on the reserve and resource calculation. Despite this,
the study on the mathematical relationships of the tonnage, average
grade and cutoff is still scant. According to the fractal distribution
of element concentrations, which are obtained from analysis of
channel samples of constant length along exploration or mining
works, the tonnage-cutoff and average grade-cutoff models are
constructed, which are applicable in both exploration and operating
mine environments. Via these models, the relationships between
ore tonnage, metal tonnage and cutoff are obtained in terms of
the fractal model of element concentrations. Moreover, the thickness
of the mineralized zone in each exploration or mining work follows
a fractal model, and assuming that the thickness is a continuous
variable, a model for calculating the mass of the mineralized
zone in a single deposit is established. Given the mineralized
zone mass, the tonnage-cutoff and average grade-cutoff models
can be utilized to calculate ore reserve and average grade, especially
when the cutoff changes. A fault-controlled disseminated-and-veinlet
gold deposit in Jiaodong gold province, China, is selected as
a case study. The estimates of the ore reserves obtained from
these models are found to be consistent with the results obtained
by the traditional geometric block method.
Keywords: Tonnage; Grade; Fractal; Reserve; Cutoff; Jiaodong』
1. Introduction
1.1. Traditional methods for ore tonnage and average grade
estimation
1.2. Models of grade, tonnage and cutoff
1.3. Fractal distributions of geological objects
1.4. Research objective
2. Raw data and geological models
2.1. Raw data and geometric block method (GBM)
2.2. Model for calculation of mineralized zone mass
2.3. Geological model for tonnage-cutoff model
3. Number-size model
4. Calculation of the mineralized zone mass
5. Tonnage-cutoff model
6. Average grade-cutoff model
7. Applications of the tonnage-cutoff model and average grade-cutoff
model
8. Case study
8.1. Geological setting
8.2. Deposit exploration and raw data
8.3. Mineralized zone mass estimation
8.4. Relationships between tonnage, average grade and cutoff
9. Discussions and conclusions
Acknowledgements
References