The technology picture in 2019 as it impacts the key activities of geological and Mineral Resource modelling offers promise for transformational changes. Key areas of innovation are in data gathering, where gigabytes of multi-channel, multivariate data are able to be recorded for a single diamond drillhole; the analysis of big data and pattern recognition among vast, complex data sets; ever more sophisticated model or parameter fitting to geological and geostatistical observations, and sheer crunch power, enabling the generation of multiple equiprobable plausible scenarios and the increasingly accurate quantification of associated risk. We are even seeing the beginnings of expert systems development, an area which offers great promise. Notwithstanding these areas of advance, there are still many fields of technical challenge. Better capture and more rapid modelling of the geological controls on mineralisation is an area which has seen breathtaking growth, but which also can go a lot further. The developing field of geometallurgy and the interaction of multiple related variables, some non-linear, is ripe for further innovation. The modelling of flexured, folded and faulted mineralised systems has seen great innovation in the past decade, but the promise of quick simple user-friendly capture of chaotic geological systems has yet to deliver. Finally, despite theoretical breakthroughs, the modelling of joint uncertainty of multiple products (both co-products and contaminants) has yet to be practically implemented in everyday mining operations. Technology can and will help to meet these challenges, and the role of modelling practitioners will need to evolve in train with innovations. The skill of geological intuition, or even learned intuition, will become increasingly important as developments offer multiple credible scenarios which were simply not on offer in the past. The promise is the derisking of a very risky business through a greater appreciation of the range of alternatives and a much better quantification of mining risk, along with associated increases in mining investment.
CITATION:Glacken, I M, 2019. Mineral resource estimation technology and challenges in the 21st century when will the robots be taking over?, in Proceedings MetPlant 2019, pp 511 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).