Mineral Reserve Estimation

By Bilal Ahmad and Idrees Khan

CONTENTS:
• Preparation
• Reserve Classification
• Verification
• Cutoff Grade
• Mine Practicality
• Risk Assessment
• Peer Review
• Audit
• Documentation
• Mineral Reserve Statement
PREPARATION:
• Pre-Planning.
• Develop a plan ensuring no significant factor is ignored.
CLASSIFICATION:
• Estimated reserve must fall under classification given by CIM.
VERIFICATION:
• QP must verify all the reserve estimation data.
• Prepare methodology for verification process sequence wise.
Cutoff grade:
• Minimum grade beyond which ore is considered to be waste.
• Determination of numerious cutoff grade applied which further helps in
reserve estimation.
Practicality of Mining:
• Viability of selected mining and processing methods.
• Selected equipment should be appropriate.
Risk Assessment:
• QP must establish methodology to identify risk during reserve estimation.
Peer Review:
• Internal peer reviews of reserve estimates including methodologies, input data and
mining and processing methods.
Audit:
• Upon completion of pre-feasibility report, best practice is completion of audit
carried out by impartial QP.
Mineral Reserve Statement:
• In the end, QP must give his own reserve statement that should match with
statement given by CIM.
• Resource to reserve relationship, stripping ratio, ore recovery and dilution
must be reported clearly, understandable by common knowledgeable
person.