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INTRODUCTION
In order to optimise the management of the mining business it is
very relevant to do good measurements. Unfortunately this is not
always the case in our mines. By good measurements I mean
accurate and precise or reproducible measurements. Accuracy
and precision are functions of the objectives of the decisions to
be made along the mining business value chain. Generally the
objective is to minimise the economical losses, not the hidden, in
a sort of individualistic way. As a consequence the optimisation
of the system is not achieved.
Some of the key variables to measure are grades and tonnages.
If the key measurements are not properly done, there is no
possible way to learn from the process and therefore continuous
improvement becomes a myth. The abundant models used to FIG 1 - Evolution of the analytical error over time and the analytical
design, plan and materialise the business cannot be verified and techniques used at the laboratory.
validated and production cannot be reconciled.
Another of our main weaknesses is the lack of understanding This figure gives us many lessons:
about the variability and more precisely the different kinds of • Precision and accuracy are very variable over time. As a
variability. This impedes us from optimising the net present consequence a systematic QA/QC program must always
value because we are not able to understand the real nature of our exist.
process from rock to cathodes, hence the hidden losses are
difficult to discover. • Precision is a function of the technique. In this case AA was
always more precise than volumetry.
The main objective of this paper is to illustrate by means of
four historical facts how Codelco has been evolving in those • XRF is very imprecise and highly biased.
issues and to share with the sampling community some key facts • Atomic absorption is always more precise than the other
and concepts learned over the last 30 years. It has been a slow techniques. Late AA, although biased, is more precise than
but a consistent process. Much progress has been achieved but the early AA.
still there are many opportunities for improvement to transit from
the tonnage culture to the productivity culture. Before 1974 the technique was short volumetry; as can be seen
it was biased, probably because of bad assaying practices. Then
AA equipment was acquired in order to modernise the assaying
FACT ONE – EL ABRA AND RADOMIRO TOMIC process. At the beginning AA was accurate and then because the
ASSAY BIAS AA was not matching the volumetry checks the AA results were
In the late 1980s Codelco top management decided to sell part of corrected. This was the main cause of the El Abra bias. Then
some mining assets. As a consequence 51 per cent of El Abra XRF was implemented by the chief chemist in order to increase
was sold. During the due diligence process an analytical bias was productivity. At that time the main mined ore was secondary
discovered. This bias indicated an overestimation of the mean sulfides, therefore the chemist set the technique up accordingly.
grade of the deposit of 0.05 per cent Cu in the oxide zone. The The geologists did not explain they were sending oxides samples
bias was not constant; it was conditional to grade. As the grade from a different ore unit; the chemist did not explain to the
decreased the bias increased. For a high tonnage-low grade geologists the sensitivity of the technique to the matrix. This was
deposit this bias was very significant from the economic view the main cause of the Radomiro Tomic bias.
point (Carrasco, Carrasco and Jara, 2004). Summarising, imprecision and inaccuracy could be explained
by several causes:
• lack of QA/QC systems,
1. Director de Especialidad Tecnica, Codelco, Chile.
Email: PCarrasc@codelco.cl • lack of communication between geologists and chemists,
• wrong optimisations strategies – each one made honest efforts • incorporation of all the former issues into the Corporate
to optimise their job ignoring the optimisation of the system in Capital System for new relevant projects (Cnam 016, 2004);
a holistic way, • introduction of chronostatistics in order to better understand
• incompetence, and/or the components of the variability of process;
• ignorance. • introduction of the concept of chronostatistics process control;
The El Abra and Radomiro Tomic biases made top management • improvement of weighing systems (Cnam 014, 2004); and
aware about the economical relevance of improper analytical • systematic audits.
practices. As a consequence they lead a complete program of
QA/QC of chemical analysis and sampling.
Relevant actions were: FACT THREE – AWARENESS OF
WEIGHING ERRORS
• creation of a special group devoted to develop QA/QC at
corporate level; The proper measurement of the tonnage is very relevant for the
mining industry. The estimation error of the in situ tonnage is
• acquisition of a chemical laboratory managed by very relevant to determine the incertitude classification of the ore
experienced chemists in order to develop primary analytical resources (inferred, indicated or measured). Many challenges for
methods for SRM – in our experience, after several the geologist exist in order to solve this problem, because the
international round robin exercises, the only safe laboratory incertitude of the in situ tonnage is a function of the incertitude
is the one under your control; of the volume of the geological unit that hosts mineralisation, the
• development and implementation of corporate guidelines to incertitude of the specific gravity and the incertitude of the
prepare standard reference materials from Codelco ores, moisture content.
concentrates and tails (Cnam 009, 1998); The mining tonnages are also an issue. A study proved the
mine tonnages biased when estimated by truck constant factor.
• development and implementation of corporate sampling As a matter of fact the mine tonnages were overestimated by
guidelines for chemical analysis purposes (Corporate five per cent. Another study proves the weightometers biased at
Committee of Chemical Analysis, 1994); several belt points in the plants. The lesson was: generally, when
• development and implementation of corporate guidelines for the weightometers are not properly calibrated the tonnages are
chemical analysis verification (Cnam 010, 2007); overestimated. The magnitude of the overestimation varied
between four per cent and 14 per cent.
• systematic training courses; and The key experiment to be convinced about the unreliability of
• systematic audits. improper calibrated belt scales was the measurement of a big
tonnage in a very precise scale (material test). Figure 2 to Figure 6
FACT TWO – AWARENESS OF SAMPLING show the measurement process (Wilke, 2007).
ERRORS AND THE ROLE OF FRANCIS PITARD
Another relevant action trigged by the El Abra bias was to hire
the services of Francis Pitard, a world reknown sampling
consultant, disciple of Pierre Gy and Ingamells.
In the early 1980s our knowledge of the sampling theory was
limited. Indeed, we were just aware of the fundamental error. We
made some efforts to better understand the theory but
unfortunately the existing books were very cryptic. Francis
Pitard played a fundamental role in educating us about the theory
of sampling. As well, he helped us to convince top managers to
improve sampling and assaying systems all along the mining
value chain from rock to cathodes. Also, he encouraged us to
better understand the relevance of process variability to optimise
the mining business and to begin the transition from the culture
of tonnage (quantity) to the culture of productivity (quality).
Some major improvements at corporate level were:
• development and implementation of guidelines to estimate
the sampling constants of Codelco mines ore types (Cnam FIG 2 - Deviating the material.
008, 1998; Cnam 011, 2000; Carrasco et al, 2005);
Some major improvements at corporate level were:
• development and implementation of guidelines for the
optimisation of sampling protocols for ores, concentrates, tails, • research and training program with the Geosciences Center of
anodes, cathodes, etc (Cnam 013, 2003; Cnam 015, 2004); the Paris School of Mines to apply the truncated Gaussian
simulation method to the assessment of the volume incertitude
• development and implementation of guidelines to improve of ore units (Carrasco et al, 2007);
the quality of sampling preparation equipment (Cnam 012;
Cnam 013, 2003);
• improvement of volume and mass measurements at several
scales (drill core, mine bench, etc);
• systematic courses of sampling theory for operators, • development and implementation of guidelines to improve the
geologists, mining engineers, metallurgists and chemists; quality of weighing systems (Cnam 014; Cnam 016, 2004);
• systematic reports for top managers; • development and implementation of systematic material tests;
• design and building of head, concentrate and tails sampling and
stations in all Codelco concentrators and projects (Cnam 007, • an ongoing research program to implement the measurement
1996); of mass by proportional sampling (Gy, 1998).
FIG 5 - Loading.
FIG 3 - Stockpiling.
FIG 6 - Weighing.
sample volume of the diamond holes. Besides, the mean grade of Figure 8 is explicit about the variations inside a half shift
the blastholes is significantly higher of the mean grade of the period of time and about the uselessness of the average. The
diamond drills. The conclusion is that the diamond drill samples plant manager would be very happy with the performance if only
are not capable to represent the variability of the gold grades the average is seen. A very different perception arises when
because its volume is too small and the sample number looking at the grades on a 6 min basis. This study allowed
insufficient. This is possible in high nugget effect – skewed finding out the origin of the low-grade values. The cause was the
lognormal populations where the mean is higher than the mode. increase of ore coming from draw points with high dilution
• Information effect – the perception of variability is a function content. As a consequence mine planning and drawing practices
of the amount of information and the quality of the were improved.
estimation. As estimation is never equal to reality, decisions
made on estimates could be very different to decisions made
on true values. This is very important in selective mining of
complex ores.
• Variability and scale – the variability is a function of the
scale. Figure 7 shows the variance as a function of the scale
for a stationary random function at different ranges.
REFERENCES
Carrasco, P, 1998. Norma Codelco Cnam 008: Test de heterogeneidad para
determinar constantes de muestreo y nomogramas de preparación de
muestras, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz, informe interno (unpublished).
Carrasco, P, Campos, M, Tapia, J and Menichetti, E, 2000. Norma Cnam
011: Test de Ingamells, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz (unpublished
report).
Carrasco, P, Campos, M, Tapia, J and Menichetti, E, 2003a. Norma Cnam
012: Operaciones estándar a seguir durante el sub muestreo en el
laboratorio, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz (unpublished report).
Carrasco, P, Campos, M, Tapia, J and Menichetti, E, 2003b. Norma Cnam
013: Aseguramiento de calidad en preparación de muestras minerales
para analisis quimico, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz (unpublished
FIG 10 - Metallurgical recovery of copper versus variability.
report).
Carrasco, P, Carrasco, P, Campos, M, Tapia, J and Menichetti, E, 1998.
Some major improvements at corporate level were: Norma Cnam 009: Obtención y certificación de materiales de
referencia en los laboratorios químicos, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz
• development and implementation of guidelines to consider (unpublished report).
the variability in ore resource estimation and grade control; Carrasco, P, Carrasco, P, Campos, M, Tapia, J and Menichetti, E, 1999.
• systematic courses of statistics, linear geostatistics, Norma Cnam 010: Verificación de resultados de análisis químicos,
Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz (unpublished report).
non-linear geostatistics and chronostatistics for geologists,
mining engineers, metallurgists and chemists; and Carrasco, P, Carrasco, P, Campos, M, Tapia, J and Menichetti, E, 2005.
Heterogeneity and Ingamells’s tests of some Chilean porphyry ores,
• research work to quantify the economical impact of natural in Proceedings Second World Conference on Sampling and Blending,
and process variability misunderstanding. pp 139-150 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy:
Melbourne).
CONCLUDING REMARKS Carrasco, P, Carrasco, P, Ibarra, F, Rojas, R, Le Loc’h, G and Seguret, S,
2007. Application of the truncated Gaussian simulation method to a
Improper sampling, assaying and weighing practices and the porphyry copper deposit in Proceedings APCOM, 33rd International
misunderstanding of the natural and process components of Symposium on Application of Computers and Operations Research in
the Mineral Industry, pp 31-39 (University of Chile: Santiago).
variability can produce monumental value losses to the mining
industry worldwide. Those losses lead as well to economic Carrasco, P, Carrasco, P and Jara, E, 2004. The economic impact of
correct sampling and analysis practices in the copper industry,
inefficiency and unsustainable exploitation of natural resources, Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 74:209-213.
jeopardising the wealth of future generations and adding
Carrasco, P and Pitard, F, 2004. Norma Cnam 015: Muestreo y analisis de
unnecessary negative externalities to society. The mining cátodos de cobre, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz (unpublished report).
industry has a magnificent opportunity to increase their
Carrasco, P and Tello, A, 1996. Norma Cnam 007: Condiciones de
economic performance by discovering hidden losses. This can be estaciones de muestreo de flujos de materiales y transferencia de
done by applying optimal assaying techniques, the principles of productos, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz (unpublished report).
the sampling theory, statistical and geostatistical thinking, Carrasco, P, Wilke, A, Jara, E and Suarez, E, 2007. Some applications of
effective chronostatistical process control, minimising the statistics and geostatistics to the sampling of a big cooper tail stream,
irrelevant variability, maximising the understanding of relevant in Proceedings Third World Conference on Sampling and Blending,
process variability and by encouraging the work of pp 352-366.
multidisciplinary high level experts aligned with the main Chiles, J P and Delfiner, P 1999. Geostatistics: Modelling Spatial
objectives of the mining business. Uncertainty, 695 p (John Wiley and Sons, Inc).
Corporate Committee of Chemical Analysis, 1994. Normas para analisis
quimico, segunda edición, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz (unpublished
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS report).
The author wishes to thank Mr Fernando Vivanco, corporate Gy, P, 1998. Sampling for Analytical Purposes, pp 117-118 (John Wiley
Projects Vice President, and Mr Julio Beniscelli, Manager of and Sons, Inc).
Technical Services, Codelco Chile, for their strong support in the Matheron, G, 1962. Traité de géostatistique appliquée. Tome 1, 334 p;
implementation of good sampling, assaying and geostatistical Tome 2, 172 p (Editions Technip: Paris)
practices along the copper business value chain. Solis, O, Wilke, A, Carvajal, P and Tapia, J, 2004. Norma Cnam 014:
Sistemas de pesaje en correas transportadoras, Codelco Chile, Casa
I am also grateful to Francis Pitard for his wise advice and Matriz (unpublished report).
lectures on sampling, assaying, chronostatistics and process Wilke, A, 2007. Mejoramientos al balance metalúrgico, Codelco,
control practices over the last 15 years. División El Teniente (unpublished report).
I also would like to thank Patricio Guerra, Chief Chemist at El Wilke, A, Solis, O and Anés, J, 2004. Norma Cnam 016: Antecedentes
Teniente, Julio Tapia, Magali Campos and Ester Menichetti, metrológicos para proyectos, Codelco Chile, Casa Matriz (unpublished
chemist consultants at central office, Alfredo Wilke, QA/QC report).