M E T E C H

U S E R S

C O N F E R E N C E

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O C T O B E R

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING

Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

INTRODUCTION
Understanding the application of grade estimation techniques is hard enough without the added difficulty of dealing with complex geology. Factors that cause variations in the orientation and placement of mineralisation such as folding and faulting need to be taken into account when resource modelling. Both folding and faulting on many scales are common occurrences in the George Fisher Ag-Pb-Zn Deposit, affecting the spatial distribution of mineralisation and consequently, grade estimation techniques. The Medsystem kriging interpolation technique (M624V1) allows the use of a fixed orientation search ellipsoid for each kriging run. The estimation derived using the technique (without surface tracking software) on structurally complex orebodies may be valid for global estimates, however local (eg stope scale) errors may occur owing to variations in the orientation of mineralisation. In-house software incorporating Medsystem procedures and programs has been developed by MIM to provide an estimation technique that is better adapted to the complex geology of the deposit. It is the purpose of this paper to outline and evaluate the methods used to account for structural deformation when estimating grade distribution at George Fisher.

GEOLOGY Mineralisation
The George Fisher Deposit, located in NW Queensland (Figure 1), is a stratiform Ag-Pb-Zn deposit hosted by the Urquhart Shale Formation of the Mount Isa Group. The Urquhart Shale Formation is a dolomitic siltstone/shale unit that contains variable amounts of fine-grained pyrite and other sulfides (eg galena, sphalerite, pyrrhotite, and chalcopyrite). Bedding strikes approximately 10-15 west of magnetic north and dips variably between 30-85 to the west (averaging approximately 55). The deposit is bound to the south by a post mineralisation fault and is structurally open to the north.

George Fisher

Mineralisation is bedding-parallel (apart from minor cross-cutting Figure 1: Location map of the George Fisher Mine veins) in pyritic shales, occurring mainly as centimetre to metre wide bands of sulfide separated by barren siltstones and shales (Figure 2). Ore-waste boundaries are always very sharp and can be defined by a single bedding plane. There is no mineralisation halo that crosses the ore-waste boundary. Typical sulfide mineralogy within the orebodies is galena + sphalerite + pyrite + silver sulfides pyrrhotite. In a broad sense, the mineralisation is continuous along bedding with individual sulfide bands being able to be followed for tens to hundreds of metres, despite open folding/flexuring of the strata. Native silver is present throughout the deposit, however local concentrations are recognised. The phase is not continuous, rather occurs as small, thin wafers on fault/fracture planes.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

Figure 2: Example of zinc mineralisation (pink) with fine-grained pyrite in George Fisher diamond drill core. Note that all contacts between the mineralisation and siltstone/shale are along bedding. Core size is BQ.

Mine-Scale Faulting
The deposit is intersected and offset by a number of post-mineralisation faults. Two main types have been identified: ENE-WSW trending transverse faults (Figure 1): Displacement on the faults ranges from less than 5m to approximately 70m with sense of movement being consistently north block east. Numerous episodes of displacement can be seen on fault surfaces with the final movement being predominantly strike-slip. The strike extent of the faults is variable, however all major faults have been reliably interpreted across the entire mineralised sequence. The faults cut the deposit into a number of fault blocks, each with a strike-length varying between 40m to 200m. High angle, bedding parallel faults: These are steep, variably-dipping faults striking almost parallel to bedding. The faults are found mainly within orebodies. The faults have significant effects in the hanging-wall sequence (A D orebody) where displacement (predominantly west block down) dramatically thins (or removes) strata.

Geological Domains Fault Block Domains

The George Fisher Deposit has been divided into nine fault block domains defined by eight ENE-WSW trending transverse faults and one north-south trending reverse fault (Figure 3). Fault blocks have been defined so that orebodies can be shown to have specific displacement along faults and thus, be represented accurately in the block model. Within each fault block domain is a set of stratigraphic domains, as described below. When block modelling, data within a fault block is treated separately from data in adjoining fault blocks (ie samples from adjoining fault blocks are not used in interpolation). Many more fault blocks could be defined, however the resultant lack of data in each block restricts the division.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

I74 Fault Block

I74 Fault

S73 Fault

S73E Fault Block

R75 Fault

M72 Fault Block

M72 Fault

S73W Fault Block L70 Fault Block

L70 Fault

G69 Fault

K68 Fault Block

K68 Fault

G69 Fault Block

Figure 3: Fault plan of central 12/L George Fisher showing faults and fault blocks. Northern fault N76 is not shown. North is at top.

Stratigraphic Domains
The stratigraphic positions of domains were decided by analysing the entire deposit and identifying sections of the stratigraphic column where mineralisation was not present. These unmineralised domains, which consisted mainly of siltstone, divided the mineralised domains that contain the orebodies (see Figure 2). The domain boundaries are truly stratigraphic over the entire deposit. The advantage of stratigraphic domaining is to constrain mineralisation to particular strata and stop unmineralised packages interfering with interpolations of mineralisation.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

Figure 4: 12L Plan showing examples of mineralised domains offset by faults. Unmineralised domains separate the
mineralised domains. 0BM0 B Mineralised Domain (B Orebody) Yellow 0CM0 C Mineralised Domain (C Orebody) Pink 0CDM CD Mineralised Domain (CD Lens) Grey 0DM0 D Mineralised Domain (D Orebody) Turquoise 0GU0 G Upper Domain (G Orebody) Blue

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

RELATIVE COORDINATES EASTING-OFFSET METHOD

Two important geological properties of the deposit are:

1. The position and stratification of mineralised strata is dependent on the bounding stratigraphic surfaces (ie
where folding and faulting are present, the mineralised strata follow bedding), and

2. Mineralisation is continuous in the plane of bedding.

These properties are the basis to the relative coordinate system used at George Fisher to remove some structural deformation effects from the data. The easting-offset method was designed to transform the data into an optimal form for the standard Medsystem kriging program (M624V1). Ordinary kriging uses a planar search strategy, however, as described above, the mineralisation at George Fisher is commonly non-planar. In this untransformed form, the mineralisation is continuous along bedding, however it is discontinuous in the frame of reference of a planar search strategy. The aim of the software is to make the data continuous in the frame of reference of the search by transforming it into a planar form. The theory behind the method is that points, whether samples or block centroids with the same stratigraphic position in a domain, have an equal perpendicular offset from the hanging wall or footwall of the domain (Figure 5a). If all points in the same stratigraphic position are plotted such that the measured offsets are transferred to an offset from a planar surface, the points will be aligned in a plane parallel to the planar surface, producing an unfolded data set in a new coordinate system (Figure 5b). Perpendicular offsets are used because they track the geology closer where the bedding orientation varies. Figure 6 shows an example. The software used to measure the offset does so in the east orientation of the block model (ie 90 0 0). To measure a perpendicular easting offset in the 90 0 0 orientation from a surface, the surface must be first rotated such that it is vertical and striking north-south (ie 0 0 90). Given that the domains at George Fisher strike approximately northsouth, a dipping surface can be rotated about the north axis (0 0 0) to satisfy the requirements. Figures 7 and 8 show the rotation
Hanging-wall surface

Perpendicular offsets from hanging-wall surface, all of equal length

Transfer offsets to plane of dominant dip of original surface

Stratigraphic plane defined by offsets

All samples in new coordinate system are in the one plane (ie unfolded data set).

a)

b)

Figure 5: a) All points shown are in the same stratigraphic position within a domain. The perpendicular offsets of each from the hanging-wall surface are equal. b) After the offsets are transferred to the plane of dominant dip, all points are in the one plane. This is the optimum form for the Medsystem kriging technique. Since the process to transform the data is known, any interpolation in the relative coordinates can be transformed back into real space.

Using the method, the following are true in transformed coordinates: Blocks with the same offsets lie in the same plane. Samples with the same offset are in the same plane Blocks and samples with the same offset lie in the same plane.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

a)

b)

Figure 6: a) Offsets at acute angle to surface: Shows surface (solid line) and predicted stratigraphic position with same offset as the red point. All offsets are of the same length in the same orientation. Note how the solid and dashed line converge at the area of variable orientation. b) Offsets perpendicular to dominant surface dip: Note how the stratigraphic position of points with equal offset is equidistant from the surface surface. Although some offsets are not exactly perpendicular, sensitivity tests show that it is not significant provided the discrepancy is less than 15.

Thus, if kriging is performed in the transformed coordinates with a planar search oriented 0 0 90, the samples will be aligned such that large-scale structural effects are removed.

Relative Coordinate Kriging Procedure Step 1: Surface creation

Surfaces defining the domain boundaries and fault surfaces are created by triangulation using points from diamond drillholes, mapping and interpretation. The surfaces are used for: 1. Creating domain and fault block solids for coding the block model and drillholes. 2. Calculating offsets (domain surfaces only). Two surfaces (hanging-wall and footwall) are used to define a domain. Currently, internal surfaces can not be incorporated in the procedure.

Step 2: Coding
The block model and composites are coded for fault block and domain. The same solids are used for both the block model and the composites to ensure parity.

Step 3: Define domain to estimate

Define the fault block and the stratigraphic domain to be kriged. Also define the rotation required to rotate the stratigraphic domain to vertical. Only one domain can be kriged at a time owing to the different variography of each domain.

Step 4: Surface rotation and gridding

Stratigraphic surfaces are rotated to vertical and gridded to a 5m by 5m grid in long-section. The gridding and rotation steps are performed for a number of reasons: The gridding gives numerous regularly distributed points that can be measured quickly for accurate calculation of offsets. The points created by the geologist during triangulation are spaced too widely for the procedures to measure perpendicular offsets.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited The rotation ensures that measurements of easting-offset are in the same frame of reference as the block model and perpendicular to the surface (ie the easting-offset is truly in the 90 0 0 MEDS orientation). Gridding smooths out bumps and overturns in wireframes (Figure 7).

Surface with overturn. Section looking north.

Surface rotated to vertical and gridded to 5m X 5m

Resultant surface created from grid points. Note removal of overturn.

Figure 7: Diagram showing how gridding can remove bumps and overturns in surfaces. Surfaces are gridded in longsection view. Sectional view looking north.

Step 5: Calculation of block relative coordinates

The block centroids are rotated around the same point and by the same amount as the surfaces. Distances are measured from the rotated block centroids to the gridded hanging-wall and footwall, to give the hanging-wall distance (HWDIS) and footwall distance (FWDIS) respectively (Figure 8). The HWDIS value is negative as east is positive. There is now a question of which surface should be used to align the blocks (ie to use as zero offset). Three are available the hanging-wall, the footwall and the mid-wall (Figure 8). The mid-wall is a mathematical construction defined by the plane midway between the hanging-wall and footwall. If a hanging-wall or footwall is used for alignment, blocks on the hanging-wall or footwall would line up respectively, however if the domain fluctuates in width, blocks toward the other surface would not match. The mid-wall, on the other hand can partially account for fluctuations in the width of a domain, and hence is used for alignment. The topic of alignment and variations in width will be discussed further. The mid-wall offset distance is calculated by the equation (HWDIS + FWDIS)/2 and is stored (MWDIS) (Figure 8). The transformed coordinates are then calculated. TRANX (Northing) remains the same as all rotations are about the northing axis. TRANY (Easting) is equal to the mid-wall distance (ie the eastingoffset). TRANZ (RL) remains the RL of the block after the rotation.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited East (+ve) Block centroid to be transformed
MWDIS = (HWDIS+FWDIS)/2 Hanging-wall Footwall FWDIS

Rotated Hanging-wall

Figure 8: Diagram of pre- and post-rotation surfaces showing the various distances measured and calculated by the software.

Step 6: Composite relative coordinates calculated

The composites are rotated around the same point and by the same amount as the surfaces and blocks. The same distances are measured, calculated and stored as for block centroids in Step 5. Distances are from the centroid of the composite. If we view the composite file using the transformed coordinates, we see that the samples are now aligned in a planar form (ie the orebody has been effectively unfolded) (Figure 10 shows an example of aligned transformed drillholes).

Step 7: Kriging
Grades are kriged into blocks using the relative coordinates calculated in Steps 5 and 6. The actual procedure of kriging grades uses the Medsystem program M624V1. The only difference between standard ordinary kriging and relative coordinate kriging is that the latter reads the new transformed coordinates of the composites and blocks. As with the standard procedure, it allows for definition of variables such as search parameters, variogram parameter files, multiple passes of different search parameters and search ellipsoids and sample weighting. The orientation of the search ellipsoid is always 0 0 90 (MEDS Angles) because the transformation rotates the samples to vertical, striking north-south. Batch processes can be set up to run the model for a number of domains so there is no user input required.

Requirements of the Easting-offset technique

Domain of a consistent width. As with any technique, if the orebody doesnt vary in width, there is greater likelihood for samples at the same stratigraphic position to be matched. Dip ranges less than 30. Sensitivity tests show that the interpolation is not significantly affected if the domain dip ranges less than 15. Variography must be completed using the transformed data set. In some deposits there will be great advantage in completing variography with a transformed data set. Since the samples are aligned after transformation, there is a greater chance that a variogram search will find more pairs, particularly within thin, folded domains. Sometimes the expected advantages are not seen owing to the statistical properties of the deposit. For example, take a deformed deposit that has high, short-range variations in grades. If the folding/flexuring is on a large scale compared to the ranges required for the variogram to reach greater than 70% of the sill, little advantage will be noticed. The search will find enough samples to define the variogram before the effects of deformation cause the samples to fall outside the planar variogram search. Despite the lack of enhancement of variography, there is good cause to krige using the easting-offset method to obtain the geometric advantages, as discussed later. Point kriging must be used over block kriging. Through the transformation, a block will become distorted owing to the changing orientations of the orebody surface. Also, after the rotation, the orientation of the block www.metech.com.au

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Rotated Mid-wall

Mid-wall

Rotated Footwall

Rotation

HWDIS

RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited with respect to the orebody (and hence search) is different from the pre-rotation relationship. Thus the normal method used by software for discretisation will not work correctly. A correction has to be applied to allow block kriging. Domain must strike north-south. All rotations are performed around an axis oriented north-south. Errors may occur if the strike of the domain deviates from this orientation since offsets will not be perpendicular to the orebody surfaces. Sensitivity tests show that errors are not significant if the difference in strike is less than 000 15.

What are the anticipated results?

BLUE Best Linear Unbiased Estimator. Geological zonation (across strike) within domains will be modelled. One of the deficiencies of ordinary kriging techniques that do not take into account structural effects is an unrealistic representation of grade zonation within the domain. Rather than having zones continuous and parallel to bedding (as predicted by the geology), zebra striping is the result (Figure 9). The amount of zebra striping tends to increase with increased sample separation. It is anticipated that by applying the easting offset method, the striping effect will be eliminated, providing a geologically realistic representation of grade continuity and zonation within domains.

Figure 9: An example of zebra striping. The domains hanging wall and footwall are shown in orange. The green line is a fault. Note how the grade zonation (yellow) does not follow the domain boundaries.

Accurate local scale estimations. By providing a realistic representation of grade continuity, local (stope scale) estimates will be more accurate and reliable. The striping induced by fixed orientation searches can inadvertently cause local high or low-grade estimations. Optimisation of search strategy because the samples are aligned, allowing confident use of a planar ellipsoid and search strategy. If it is known that the mineralisation is truly stratigraphic (ie parallel to bedding like at George Fisher), it is ideal to match samples at the same stratigraphic position between drillholes. Unfolding the domain allows: 1. Variography searches to find the maximum number of samples from the correct stratigraphic location. 2. Application of a planar search ellipsoid to the transformed coordinates knowing that it will include samples from the same stratigraphic location.

RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING RESULTS AND COMPARISONS

Comparisons between grade estimations of a stope from the block model and the actual mined grades are difficult owing to the complexity of the mining operations. Numerous sources are being produced at any one time with all ore reporting to a common location. Thus comparisons between estimated and actual are restricted to direct observations of the geology (underground exposure and drillholes). In the following sections the results of the modelling process are compared with real geology and a model created using the standard Medsystem procedure.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited Note that all figures on the following pages are the product of real data.

Comparison between the results of relative coordinate kriging and real geology
In some areas, the relative coordinate kriging technique honours the geology very closely, however in other areas, there appears to be little correlation. The reasons for the lack of honouring of drillholes are due primarily to rapid changes in orebody width and complex internal deformation of the orebody. Where blocks do not honour drillholes closely, there are extreme structural effects present.

Problems of changing domain width

It has been discussed previously that as part of the transformation, samples are aligned according to an offset from a calculated plane (the domain mid-wall). If the software is presented with a number of complete (ie structurally unaffected) domain intersections of the same length, the transformed intersections will be aligned such that the middle of the intersections are in the one plane (oriented 0 0 90) (Figure 10).

Figure 10: Diagram showing a real non-planar data set (left) and the equivalent transformed data set (right). Drillholes have been numbered ( indicating the transformed DDH). The interpretation of geology is shown in purple. The transformed data shows that the effect of the large-scale folding has been removed. NOTE: Through the transformation, the drillholes are mirrored. This has no effect on the interpolation.

If planes of the same orientation are imposed on different parts of the intersections, each plane will match up samples from the same stratigraphic location between drillholes. If the orebody changes in width (because of faulting or internal folding) the intersection will still be aligned according to mid-wall offset, however the 0 0 90 planes will not match up samples from the same location (Figure 11). If the hanging-wall most or footwall most sample on the longest intersection is chosen, the 0 0 90 plane will not match up with any sample on the shorter intersection.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

Figure 11: Diagram showing a domain that changes width. Real non-planar data set is on the left and the equivalent transformed data set is on the right. Drillholes have been numbered ( indicating transformed DDH). The interpretation of geology is shown in purple. Vertical lines (dashed green) have been placed at the endpoints of the longest intersection in the transformed data set to indicate the orientation of the search ellipsoid. As shown, stratigraphically similar samples do not match with the vertical lines because of the change in width. Refer to text and compare with Figure 10.

The problems of internal deformation If the situation presented in Figure 12a is considered: The diagram shows 4 drillholes of approximately the same length. The interpreted geology between the drillholes suggests that the area has undergone deformation Figure 12b shows the transformed drillholes together with an interpretation of the geology. The transformation has transferred the drillhole intersections into single plane. In doing so, the effects of internal deformation are not also regularised. If the aligning of samples is investigated, it is seen that the yellow samples do not line up between drillholes 2, 3 and 4. Subsequently, when kriging, samples from different strata may be considered by the software as being from the same stratigraphic position when they are not. The effect of this on the block model is a smoothing effect (Figure 12c). Trying to counter this problem is almost impossible.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

a)

b)

c)
Figure 12 a) Real data set with geology interpretation. b) Transformed data set of same area with interpretation shown. Also included is a vertical line representing the orientation of the search ellipse. The vertical line shows that samples between drillholes 2, 3 and 4 do not line up owing to the deformation. c) The result as shown in the block model. The kriging is unable to continue the zonation through the area of complex internal deformation.

Comparison between Relative coordinate kriging and standard Ordinary Kriging

The results of relative coordinate kriging show a significant improvement in the representation of grade distribution over standard ordinary kriging. As expected, global grade comparisons between the two techniques are very similar (<1%), however there can be a large difference between local estimations, particularly in the variablydipping areas. In variably-dipping areas, and areas where the dip is significantly different from the average dip, the relative coordinate procedure produced a better result than the standard procedure (Figures 13 and 14). The better performance can be attributed to the enhanced ability for the search to find and match samples from the same stratigraphic position between drillholes independent of the domain dip.

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

a)

b)

Figure 13 a) Easting offset method with true geology overlay. b) Standard procedure with true geology overlay.

a)

b)

Figure 14 a) Standard procedure showing zebra striping. b) Easting offset method. Note geological zonation parallel to domain boundaries as predicted by geology.

In some areas, variations in dip caused significant amounts of the search ellipsoid in the standard procedure to protrude the domain boundaries, effectively decreasing the search neighbourhood. The relative coordinate procedure removes the possibility of this happening by ensuring the data and searches are in the same plane (See figure 15).

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RELATIVE COORDINATE KRIGING Stephen Mundell, Geologist, Mount Isa Mines Limited

a)

b)

Figure 15 a) Fixed orientation Search Ellipsoid. b) Easting offset sample selection. Note how selection is in the plane of the domain boundaries.

In some cases it can be seen that the grade of blocks kriged using the standard procedure honours the drillholes better than blocks estimated using the relative coordinate technique. These situations mainly occur in areas where the dip is significantly different from the average dip where the orebody width is changing. The reason for the improved honouring of drillholes is that the difference between domain dip and the search ellipsoid is so great that few other drillholes are selected. The relative coordinate technique will allow more samples to be selected, however since the domain width is changing, there is a high likelihood that samples from the same stratigraphic position will not be matched between drillholes, as described previously. With all factors considered, the easting-offset method produced a better, more geologically correct result than the standard procedure. With the accurate tracking of across strike geological zonation displayed, geologists are able to evaluate lenses of ore on the hanging wall or footwall of a domain. Evaluation is carried out to see whether a lens is economical as an individual source, or if it should be included (or bulked in) with the rest of the domain. This procedure would not be able to be completed as successfully with the standard procedures because of the zebra striping illustrated in Figure 9.

CONCLUSIONS
The easting-offset method provides a valid method for the resource estimation of complex, although reasonably understood orebodies. The results obtained at the George Fisher Deposit have allowed application of advanced techniques of resource definition in compiling the Mineral Resource. More importantly, the complex programs and procedures required by the technique have been simplified so they can be used by the mine geologist as part of their daily routine. The development of the software has demonstrated the strong link between geology and geostatistics. Continual advances in the understanding of the ore deposit geology have driven the adaptation of the technique to suit the style of mineralisation.

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