Obtaining Information From the Geologic Block Model ©2007 Dr. B.C. Paul {Note – The Name MineSight® and the Program described are property of Mintec Inc – Tucson, Arizona. Slides included in this presentation involve screen shots from the program and topics covered may also be covered in training given by Mintec.}

Things that Might Be of Interest 3D Block Models Create Opportunities for Visualization We may want to look at Cut-Off Grades in Terms of Equivalent Copper Ie include Moly effect We Would Like to Have Grade Tonnage Data Used to check assumptions we made when we were working on mine cut-offs and economics

Defining Equivalent Grade Open MineSight® Compass On the Menu Tab Look at the 3D Modeling Group and Calculation Operations

Choose Routine p61201.dat User Calculations

Panel Lets You Select Files to Work on an Areas to Work On For people like us Who want to work On a block model And work on the Entire model rather Than just parts the Defaults are ok Move on

Wants to Know What Variables We Will Work With I will be working with Cu Mo And EqCu Use the pull down Menus over here to Pick them (You can only pick From variables you Have)

It Does Need to Know What to Do About Undefined Information Remember we had The interpolation Routine not code 0 Values into ground Blocks where we had No data so we do have Blocks with no Cu Or Mo grade defined I told the model to Treat them as 0 for This calculation Now Move On

This Screen Lets Us Code Differently by Different Rock Types Values or costs might Be different for oxide Or sulfide ore You can have it do Different calculations For different types of Rock. Since we don’t have this in our simple project – move on

Now It Wants to Know the Calculation It Should Perform You enter it like Keystrokes into a Reverse Polish Calculator Ours is tough Eqcu=Cu+3.7*Mo

Enter the Formula and Move On We have Most math Functions Available but Not logic functions Note down here it reminded me of the variables available For me to work with

Now it wants me to confirm the variable I will store things in Obviously I am going to pull down the menu and pick EqCu

We Will Enter It and Send it On

The Program Runs

To Do Our Grade Tonnage Curves We Use That 3rd Routine MSDA We cannot run this one out of Minesight and have to bring it up with Windows

It Gives Us the Usual Complaint That Microsoft Doesn’t Know Who Mintec is Tell it to run anyway

It Starts Up It will probably chew You out for not having A file location for it Go to File and bring Up where you keep Your file to get a Screen similar to this

Now Set Your Import Directory Pick the Settings Menu pull down Choose Set Import directory

Pick Where You Keep Your Folders

Now Go To Data and Source

You Will Need to Fill in and Apply Information in Three Fields Make it a MineSight® Project Pick Your File 10 Project Control File The Apply Button Lights Up- Click on it

More Field Fill In Tell the Program You are going to be Getting data from A block model Give it Your File 15 As the block model When Apply Lights Up Click it.

Finish Filling in the Fields The Last Field is a Filter for available Variables. It’s a good Idea to keep them All available. Click All When Apply Lights Up Click Apply Click Ok to exit this Screen.

Now We Will Go To the Tool for Our Grade Tonnage Information Pull Down the Tools Menu Select Histogram

The Histogram Screen Comes Up Start by telling it Which variable you Want a histogram Of – In this case I Am interested in Equivalent Cu (I am checking to see Whether the tonnages I guessed when I Estimated a bunch Of costs are Reasonable).

Next Item is the Weighting It ore and waste or Different rock types Differ in density you Might need to weight – In our simple ore and Waste at similar Density a 1 weighting Factor works

Bins are the Little Bars for the Histogram If I want 60 bars to Cover my range I Will put that in For a minimum I usually Enter so token small Number so I won’t End up counting air Blocks with 0 copper I then set the width Of each bin. When I pick 0.1 that Means each bin Covers 1/10th of a Percent copper

Set the Name of the Output File Click Set to bring up The File Chooser I’m going to type in Equivalent Copper.his For my file Now I’ll click Ok

Issue the Build Now Command

It Asks You If You Want to Close The Form If you wanted to do Histograms on Several variables You would say no And do additional Runs on different Variables (remember you can Put different results In different report Files) When you are done say yes

Click on a File Name and Open the Display

My Detailed Histogram and Control Menu Comes Up

Pull Down the View Menu and Select Grade Tonnage Curve

The Grade Tonnage Curve Appears

Understanding the Grade Tonnage Curve The bottom scale represents the cut off grade

The Blue Line Represents the Proportion of the Ore Above a Given Cut-Off This for example Tells us 58% of The ore we Reserve we have Defined is above A 0.3% Equivalent Cu Cut-Off Grade

The Green Line Represents the Average Grade of the Material Above the Cut-Off This tells us for Example that The average grade Of the material we Would mine is about 0.75% Equivalent Cu

Significance of Average Grade Above Cut-Off A break even cut-off defines the difference between material that makes money and material that looses money Mines require a lot of capital to build You could build a charge for capital into the Break-Even grade That would make every ton of rock pay an equal share There may be money making material that won’t pay an equal share – would you want to leave that? The solution is that the average grade must make enough profit to pay off the capital Capital is a requirement of the average grade Which is the reason we want to know average grade too!

More Precision in Printed Report Click on Report by Cut-off Grade to See the number Of blocks, % above Grade and grade Above Cut-Off

Getting Tonnage Estimates Data Analyst is strongest for Variograms and Geostatistics It quantifies % of tonnage above cut-off but not directly tonnage It does say we have 69072 blocks above COV (at .31%) Block in this example is 20X20X15 or 6000 cubic meters Cubic Meter is 1.308 yd^3 Yd^3 is 3800 lbs or 1.9 tons 69072*6000*1.308*1.9 = 1,030,000,000 tons ie a billion tons This is an important check on our assumed mine size and costs

For Leach Cu 94,152 above a .11% COV for Cu alone 94,152*6000*1.308*1.9 = 1.404 Billion tons Subtracting the Milling Ore 374,000,000 tons of Leach Ore