Modelling of bauxite seam attributes and quantifying in-situ ore volume uncertainty in the presence of geophysical information

ABSTRACT

The precise prediction of the footwall variability of a lateritic bauxite seam is of critical importance for the quantification of ferricrete dilution and ore loss that is likely to occur during mining activity. However, the majority of bauxite deposits have economic drillhole intercepts that are too widely spaced to reflect the accurate contact variability, resulting in uncertainties in the in-situ ore volume and the characteristics of the ore being sent to the refinery. In a case study, the seam attributes were modelled using drillhole data and geophysical information through univariate and bivariate geostatistical approaches. The uncertainties in the volumes of ore, dilution and loss were assessed through conditional simulation. The results indicated that the in-situ ore volume was predicted more accurately when the secondary information was incorporated. The realisations suggested a high local variability in the footwall contact, which is the source of dilution and loss considering the selectivity and operating constraints.

KEYWORDS:

• Lateritic bauxite seam
• in-situ ore volume
• uncertainty assessment
• ferricrete
• conditional simulation

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Rio Tinto Alcan for funding the ground-penetrating radar survey at Oak and for granting the permission for using the data presented in this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Oktay Erten http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1718-3400