PrintModule 3 Overview
Prospecting and exploration are the first two stages in the life cycle of a mine. The first lesson in Module 2 gave us a good overview of these stages. Prospecting is really the domain of the geoscientists with minimal input from the mining engineers, and as such we are not going to go into any additional detail on prospecting. While geoscientists, and particularly geologists, are an important part of the exploration effort, mining engineers are heavily involved as well. Consequently, we’ll examine a few more topics within exploration.
Learning Outcomes
At the successful completion of this module, you should be able to:
- explain the difference between prospecting and exploration;
- explain the goals and methods of and the most important outcomes from an exploration program
- describe the difference between the two types of exploration drills, and the advantages of each;
- describe the importance and considerations for establishing a sampling plan that guides the exploration-drilling program;
- describe the importance of the geologic and grade continuity;
- define resource and reserve, and the categories of each;
- explain the area-of-influence concept and weighted averages and why they are necessary;
- calculate the weighted average of a deposit parameter;
- describe the difference between the polygon, triangle, and inverse distance methods of reserve estimation and use these methods to estimate a characteristic of the deposit.;
- describe what the stripping ratio and the breakeven or maximum stripping ratio means for a tabular and flat-lying deposit; and calculate these quantities;
- describe what the instantaneous stripping ratio and the maximum allowable stripping ratio mean for a non-tabular and non-flat-lying deposit; and calculate these quantities;
- explain the impact of pit expansion on the stripping ratio for a non-flat-lying deposit;
- calculate the cutoff grade.