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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1994; v. 79; p. 67-86;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1994.079.01.08
© 1994 Geological Society of London

Deposit variability

Evaluation of grade estimation techniques

T. M. Bell1 & M. K. G. Whateley2

1 C.L.M. Ltd (a member of the C.P. Holdings group of companies Ltd.) Nottingham Road, Giltbrook, Nottingham, UK
2 Geology Department, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

A sample set was simulated from an exhaustive data set of silver values derived from blast holes of the 5220 bench. The sample set was used to estimate the ditribution of grade for the 5220 bench using a variety of estimating techniques. The estimating processes were controlled by the knowledge of the statistical and spatial distribution of the exhaustive data set. This approach was used to test the accuracy and precision of the different estimation techniques. The results from the simpler estimation methods (linear interpolation and triangulation) compared most closely to the blast hole samples. The more complex techniques (inverse distance and kriging), using weighting factors, were found to exaggerate the variance and smooth the interquartile range.