Abstract

Short-range production models require daily updates. In open-pit environments, hundreds of datapoints as blastholes are collected (assay, rock type, clay content, acid consumption, etc) by geologists and incorporated into their resultant models (Geology, Weathering, Acid Consumption Models, etc.). These models are transferred to engineers who use them to develop plans for routing and excavation. Explicit geological modeling, or manual adjustment of modeled shapes to incorporate additional data is widely used, which requires large teams, commonly produces errors, is time-consuming and can be biased.

Recent innovations in geological modeling technology have addressed many of the pain points associated with explicit modeling. Implicit modeling is a fully dynamic workflow where geological surfaces are produced by the Radial Basis Function, a continuous 3d algorithm, as opposed to manual adjustment. Implicit models are dynamically linked to the data. Upon data reload, the model will automatically reprocess to reflect the most current geological interpretation.

Using implicit modeling, production geologists can feed daily production data into the surface algorithm to rapidly reprocess short-range production models. This removes bias introduced by explicit modeling on section lines and by different geologists. This also saves time and manpower, allowing the speedy passage of the model from production geologists to mining engineers, fostering a much more robust decision-making process. Ultimately, implicit modeling saves time, money and manpower.

This presentation will demonstrate this implicit modeling workflow. We will use blasthole data representing logged rock types by geologists in an open pit mine to rapidly update a dynamic geological model. This workflow enables production geologists and mining engineers to make more informed mine-planning and operational decisions.