Geological Society, London, Engineering Geology Special Publications
Geological Society, London, Engineering Geology Special Publications; 1999;
v. 16;
p. 107-141;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.ENG.1999.016.01.04
© 1999 Geological Society of London
4. Assessment
Although, as indicated in Fig. 3.1, the assessment of the rock or mineral deposit utilizes the data obtained from the field work and laboratory studies, the actual process of assessing the data is continuous throughout the raw material investigation. For example, assessment of the initial drilling results or laboratory analyses can radically alter the location of later boreholes. The physical and chemical models of the deposit are therefore being built up and refined continuously during the exploration. This is illustrated in Fig. 4.1. In fact, the exploration phase of the project will only cease once the models are sufficiently refined to enable the economic viability of the project to be determined.
The aim of the assessment is to determine the size and quality of the reserve of raw material and case histories of exploration and assessment of mineral deposits illustrating the methods used have been provided by Annels (1992) and Whateley & Harvey (1994). Invariably the reserve will be less than the resource which is present. Moreover, the size of any reserve will vary with time, since it is dependent upon extraction costs and the market value of the product. If the average production cost of a dimension stone increases due to thick overburden in part of the quarry, but market forces reduce the price of stone for construction, the reserve ofstone, calculated using earlier financial criteria, could well be reduced. This would be a result of having to minimize quarrying costs by working only that material with little overburden.
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This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
