The Groote Eylandt Manganese Company (GEMCO) minesa large world class manganese deposit in the Gulf of Carpen-taria, east of Arnhem Land. The deposit was first surveyed in1908 and mined following exploration studies in the 1960s. A major study was jointly undertaken in 1999 by GEMCO(owned 60:40 by Billiton and Anglo American), Maptek andSRK Consulting to construct a reconcilable resource/reservemodel for use as a foundation for the continued operation of the mine. The work concluded that the resource could bemined at its current rate for at least 20-30 years.The manganesedeposits occur within ablanket of Cretaceoussediments lapping onto thewestern margin of the sta-ble Proterozoic basementquartz sandstones andquartzites. The orebodyextends as an almostcontinuous horizon up to11 metres thick over anarea of about 50 sq km.Erosion channels in the basement may have influenced bothprimary manganese deposition as sediments and supergeneenrichment by laterisation. Consequently key ore mineralogiesare highly variable.Fundamental modelling difficulties due to the complex historyof ore forming and ore destructive processes resulted in variousresource estimates between 1990 and 1998. By 1999, thesemodels were obsolete, and mining was proceeding in areaswhere ore quality and tonnages could not be confidentlypredicted.Maptek audited the existing resource modelling techniquesand the state of the block model, and managed this jointproject with the following objectives: Verify GEMCO stratigraphic modelling Create a single 3D block model Grade estimation by ordinary kriging using SRK parameters Report total resource/reserves along GEMCO guidelinesLimitations of the previous models were identified, enablingthe new study to build on this accumulated experience. Eachpartner contributed unique expertise in different areas.
Stratigraphic Modelling Verification
GEMCO individually assessed all drillholes in the on-sitedatabase to determine the validity of including all or part of their data. The validated file was then imported into VULCANwhere on-screen display exposed further errors due to over-lapping intervals, duplicate records, duplicate drillholes, andincorrect surveys.The new model used 5,597 drillholes for stratigraphic modellingand 5,316 holes with valid assays for variography studies andgrade estimation, out of the original 6,314 in the database.Maptek checked the GEMCO triangulation surfaces againstthe colour-coded validated drillholes, to ensure stratigraphicintegrity before block modelling and grade estimation. Surfaceswere checked for internal consistency, overlap and realism.Errors were reported to GEMCO and a revised set of surfaceswas derived prior to block modelling construction.Compositing for VariographyThe major elements affecting the daily working of the mine(Mn, P, Fe, SiO
2
) and the yield values (lump and fine) wereselected for variography studies. GEMCO produced scatterplots to determine which set of variogram parameters bestsuited the non-major elements.
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gra mation cesconsis p and sm.GEMC set o facesock mo tion. of the mifine) wSeparate compositemapfiles were created tostudy all regional andstratigraphic domains forSRK to import into theISATIS geostatisticalsoftware. Variographyresults were later input intoVULCANs grade estima-tion module. GEMCOsstratigraphic codes werealso stored so the vario-gram studies couldexamine sample lengths.On-screen inspectionconfirmed correct domainpositioning.Compositing for Grade EstimationISIS binary composite databases were created to store thelarge number of composites to be used in grade estimations.Drillhole sample lengths and assay values were transferred tothe composite database, and the stratigraphic code was alsostored for sample selection.The composites were checked for the correct stratigraphicand domain codes as well as assay values. Visual checkingfor correct domain location was performed by colouringcomposite domain codes. The same process was used incross-section to check stratigraphic codes against triangulationsof the stratigraphic layers.
Block model showing high grade manganese distribution against a backdrop of basement topography Plan view of sandstone basement and regional domains
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