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RTZ Consultants Limited, PO Box 50, Castlemead, Lower Castle Street, Bristol BS99 7YR, UK
Recoverable reserves are defined as the tonnage and grade that can be recovered above a given cut-off grade in a selective mining operation. Their estimation depends on three factors: the support, information and constraint effects. These factors are discussed, and some traditional methods for estimation of global and local recoverable reserves are reviewed. The technique of conditional simulation is proposed as a practical alternative to some of the more complex methods currently used. The broad concepts of conditional simulation are discussed, and some alternative simulation methods presented. A case study on a set of real mining data illustrates the use of the conditional simulation approach to recoverable reserve estimation, with the support and information effects being modelled very simply. Results are compared with the discrete gaussian model, and with ordinary kriging, which is shown to be unsuitable for recoverable reserve estimation.
