An Introduction to MS Reserve

Note – MS Reserve is a product of Mintec incorporated a portion of Hexagon Mining. Credit for the program is given to the developers. These slides portray and include

screen shots from the program.

MS Reserve is a Option on the MineSight Pull Down

When You Click It the Splash Screen Comes Up

Click Start

MS Reserve tends to be Slow to Come On(Makes you panic that nothing is going to happen)

The First Thing You Must Do Is Explain Your Reserves Logic (what exactly do you want

to consider in identifying ore?)

From the drop-down fileMenu pick new ReservesLogic.

The New Plan Window Opens

We will begin byIdentifying our file10 (PCF) – table ofContents file

And our block model

A Click in the Blank Brings Up the 3 dot “Search and Detail” Icon

Click on the icon.

Find and Click on Your File 10

Yes I know this is goingTo be really hard.

Then click open

Oh Baby! Its In There

Now do it for the blockModel(your file 15)

Just to Keep Life Exciting This Time It’s a Pull Down Menu

Remember – the programNow has your table ofContents so it knowsExactly which file 15’sYou have.

This Selection Looks Real Tuff

Now We Need to Give Our Plan A Name

What is the Multiple Ore Percent Business

Suppose a deposit has aFossilized placer gold thatWas intruded by aCopper bearing intrusive.

One might choose to have2 different types of ore.

It is now possible a blockMight be made up of WPercent ore 1, X percentOf ore 2, y percent of waste,And z percent of air.

Most often we will have just one ore type and a zone code for things like oxide, primarySulfide (just like your model) – We will usually keep false – no need to track multiple orePercentages.

Treat Missing Values as 0

Most block models containEnough area around theOre that we cannotReasonably interpolateMineral values from distantDrill hole.

Most model valuing routinesLeave no value here.

If you don’t know theirIs mineral do you want toAssume there is none?

Most people stick with TrueOn this one.

The Next 2 Lines are Tricky

Blue Sky and Air (20%)

Ore(20%)

When I figure the ore tonnage is thisBlock 20% ore?

Or is it (100%-20%)*20% = 16% ore?

Did we already consider that part ofThis block was air when we measuredOre percent.

For your block model – and most thingsI’ve shown you how to do, the answerIs yes.

Now What Do I Do?

Is the ore clipped toTopo – ie did you alreadyEliminate the airPortion of the block

True

Use Topo/ Partial Min

True means I would treat That block as 20% ore.

False means I would multipleBoth the ore% and rock%Ie – 16%

This time the default masterLeads us down the wrongPath. Change it to true.

It Needs the Item that Gives the Rock Percentage in the Block Model

Topo is the culturallyPopular choice of Mintec

In your model it is Rock%

Click Ok to Complete the Initial Set Up

Now We Are Ready to Tell it What to Track

In our caseWe have suchThings as oxideSulfideAnd secondaryEnrichment.

This is in ourRtype variable

I Click on the Line and on the Pull Down Select the Block Model Variable

Rtype is our typeOf ore

The % of a blockThat is ore is theRock%

Density isContained orStored in SG

I Need to Explain the Items I Want to Track

Click the plusGrade iconTo identify aGrade you wantTo track

The new gradeDialog boxAppears.

My First Interest is the Copper GradeI type in the label of my choice

MWA means mass weighted averageIe weighting by mass.

In this case that meansA copper grade of 1% calculatesOut this way

1 metric tonne is 2205 lbs1% is 2205*.01 = 22.05 lbs of copper

Click OK

Now I Have to Identify the Block Model Variable that Contains the Info

In this model the item is Cu%

Enter Your Other Grade Items

MS Reserve Allows Calculated Fields

An example might beA crude estimate ofThe value per tonneOf Ore.

Click to Add a New Field

The Dialog Opens

I’ve got what IWant here so IWill click Ok

Put the Curser in the Edit Box and Click the 3 Cute Dots

You get the expressionEditor to write yourEquation.

We Type in the Expression and Click OK

Note – the equationEntered here reflectsAn example of howMetals might beValued. You will useYour own priceEstimates for the Values of the metals

We Next Move to Materials Set

Here we setUp zones andApply cut-offPoints forReportingPurposes.

You Have Several Options for Setting Up Zones

You can manually add or delete zones

You can import and export zone files

You can have the computer read yourReserves logic and copy the applicableFields.

If We Go Auto on This It Picks the Values out of My Ore Type Variable

I can now editFor things toMake moreSense.

I Will Retype Rtype 8 for Waste and Make 0 a Default

I can put theCurser in a fieldAnd retype whichIs how I got wasteAnd set 0 asThe value

A click on a boxWill makeSomething theDefault

(remember ISaid assume aNil value was toBe considered 0)

Next I Type in a More Understandable Meaning for the Ore Type Code

For Each Ore Type I can adjust default densities and recoveries

But I can also subdivide each ore type byIts grade – ie I can put ore into differentGrade range binds.

This can be very valuable for helping me to determineHow much of my tonnage meets certain gradeRequirements.

The First Question I Have to Answer is Grade of What

Control Grade Allows Me to PickAny of the Grade Items I selected forMy reserves logic.

For a One Product Mine or a OneProduct with a byproduct we pickUp on the side this is a no brainer.

For a coproduct mine where ore valueComes from more than one productThis can be an issue.

Should my cuttoff be set on copperGold, silver or iron.

Debating

• Iron is not a major product so we throw that out.• Our previous estimates suggested that silver

would not be a major economic driver• Gold and Copper together determine ore value– If we pick either one alone we might not follow the

value of the ore– The best binning measure would have something to

do with over-all ore value.

Our Problem

• Even though we added a calculated field for ore value this variable is not in the block model to be available.

• If I wanted to use ore value I would have to have previously calculated my estimate and stored it in the block model– I didn’t do this.

• For this example I will bin by copper grade

For My Low Grade I am typing in my first estimate of my break-even cut-off grade for each type of ore

A break-even cut-off grade is the minimum amount of the metal of interestThat must be present to justify processing the rock to recover the metal.(It is based on economics. I made my guess by comparison to other copperMines handling a particular type of ore).

By Putting a Check in the Little Bin Box I Can Designate a Material As Waste

I Can Add Other Cut-Off Grades to Help Me Evaluate the Amount of Material

Available if I Use a Higher Cut-Off

When We Are Done Creating the Reserves Logic Scheme Close the Screen

Click theRed X

We Now Prepare to Tell the Computer the Geometry of What We Want to Report On

We can report onThe content ofSpecific cuts weDrew out

We can report onContent betweenSurfaces

We can simply setA range on aPortion of a model

Lets Start Simple(What’s in my Block Model)

When ISelect rangeI have controlOf what partOf the blockModel I wantTo study.

In this caseLets try theWhole thing.

Now Lets Calculate the Reserves

A little green progress bar moves across the screen as the work is done

It Moves to Reporting

And claims itCalculated aCut.

I Can See the Fields Available for Reporting

The list pops up

Do Some Table Aranging

Pivot Grid is items available

My rows will be material (ie – Oxide, sulfide etc)

My columns will be type (ore, waste)

And I will report these items

Lets Take a Look at My Table

I can see I have 762.5 million cubic meters of Ore in the Model

Not Surprisingly most of theModel is waste

I also see something is Wacko in Denmark

How the crud does 762.5 million cubic metersOf material become 60 million tonnesWe are not mining helium here

What the Heck Happened to My Tonnes

We know that volume * sgItem is the tonnage

Copper ore has about a 2.3To 2.5 sgSO WHAT HAPPENED!

I know I pulled sg right out of the block model so lets seeWhat in there.

There is myProblem –The block modelIs missingsg

What Does That Mean

Calculate your own tonnage from volume

762.5 Million * 2.4 = 1.83 Billion Tonnes of ore above the selected copper cut-off

How Much Ore Was Below the Cut-Off Grades Selected Earlier

We have about 139 million cubic meters of ore we discarded as beingBelow our cut-off

139*2.4 = 334 million tonnes of low grade material

Grade Tonnage Relation

I can get theReport to “bin” myTonnages byCut-off Grade

All I had to do wasTo do my rows byCut-off grade insteadOf material

Doing A Grade Tonnage Curve in Excel

Grand total ore is 2.16 Billion Tonnes

At 0.1 Cut-off the total drops to 1.83 Billion

At 0.15 we loose 200 million cubic meters *2.4 = 482 million tonnesLeaving us 1.35 billion tonnes

At 0.2 we loose another 30.9 million cubic meters *2.4 = 74 million tonsLeaving us about 1.28 billion

And so it goes – plot.

What More Could We AskI could getThat cut-offGradeBreak-downBy ore typeAnd bench

I have a greatMay optionsFor organizingoutput

I Could be Displeased that my Cut-Offs are in Copper%

Remember we made this decisionWhen we set up our reserves logicTo use copper as our cut-off item

Slide 36

The Great Grade Debate

• If I have just one valuable metal and everything else is a byproduct we can do this

• If Gold and Copper both determine ore value then using a Gold cut-off is not really better than Copper– Best choice here is to add a grade item to our

reserves logic for value per ton and then use that as our cut-off item.

The Problem

• We have no value per tonne item with any values in it.

• Solutions– We need to find an item in our block model we

can use to store the information• Remember each variable in the block model has a fixed

range and precision so picking a variable with a range up to 3 if we expect ore values of 100 per tonne is going to end badly.

How Can I Get a Value Per Tonne in My Block Model

• If you don’t know your metal prices you can’t• If you do a very simple possibility is to go to

MineSight Compass and use the user calculation routine– I could for example set value per tonne to beCu%* $3/lb*22.05 lb/% + Au*$1200/oz + Ag*$25/oz

• This simplistic approach assumes 100% recovery from any type of ore

Another Way

• MSOPIT has a detailed economics panel that allows us to have different processing costs and recovery for every type of ore– It also can be run to calculate a reserve report– And to save value per tonne without mining cost

but with processing costs back into the block model• If we know our processing costs and recoveries

for each ore type we can get more precise values into the block model and use them.

What if I’m More Interested In Reserves in a Pit

OK – I might also beInterested in reservesNot in a pit

Remember I Said We Could Compute Reserves Between Two Gridded Surface

Files

Go Back to Geometry

Pick Surfaces

Anyone think I’m aboutReady to compute reservesBetween an undisturbedGridded surface and theUltimate pit?

Click on Open GSF

Pick Opti13 (where the ultimate pit is at)And click ok

I Get The Variable List For Opti13

Now I will checkOff my pre andPost minesurface

I Can Use Select All Select None Select Inverse to Avoid corporal tunnel from picking

I’ll Still Stick to the Whole Model Range

Click Calculate Reserves

And Wa La