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Mining & mineral resources

Resource models a reviewer can audit, not just admire

From logged drillholes to grade shells, block models, and grade–tonnage reports — with the parameters, inputs, and identity behind every number carried on the result itself.

A kriged block model in the 3D viewer — banded grade classes with block counts, merged block edges, a scale bar, and an axis triad.

The problem

A resource model is only worth its record

Mineral resource work is judged on defensibility. A block model that cannot say which samples informed it, which variogram was used, who ran it, and whether it can be reproduced is a picture, not evidence. GeoMine Scientist runs the estimation and modelling chain on a separately certified numerical foundation and attaches that record to every artifact it produces.

12

Governed compute kernels in the catalog

10

Artifact types, each self-describing

4

Refusal categories, each with its own action

0

Client-side numerics — nothing is recomputed to draw

Provenance that reaches back to the database: the tables read, the canonical project, the analyte, and the drilling behind the estimate — labelled as capture evidence, not a claim the kernel makes.

The resource modelling chain

From logged hole to reported tonnage

Each stage consumes the artifact the last one produced, and every result names the inputs it came from.

  1. Step 1

    Log

    Collars, downhole surveys, logged intervals, and assay results come from the governed project database rather than a spreadsheet copy.

  2. Step 2

    Desurvey

    Traces are computed from surveyed attitude — and the kernel refuses to continue past the deepest survey station rather than assuming unsurveyed ground.

  3. Step 3

    Composite

    Assays are composited to a declared support, with the sampled length carried through so a reviewer can see what was actually measured.

  4. Step 4

    Model

    Implicit modelling turns logged contacts into a scalar field, and isosurfaces turn that field into watertight geological shells.

  5. Step 5

    Estimate

    Ordinary kriging produces an estimate and its kriging variance per block, inside a search neighbourhood the job had to declare.

  6. Step 6

    Simulate

    Sequential Gaussian simulation produces a stack of equally probable realizations instead of one deterministic answer.

  7. Step 7

    Report

    Grade–tonnage curves and exceedance probabilities quantify what is above a cut-off, and how confident that figure is.

What the mining module does

Geometry, estimation, uncertainty, reporting, assumptions, and the record behind all of it.

Drillhole to 3D model

Desurvey logged holes, model contacts implicitly, and contour the result into nested grade or boundary shells — then read all of it in one 3D scene with sections, vertical exaggeration, a ruler, and synced-camera comparison.

  • Desurveying from collars and surveys
  • Implicit contact and stratigraphic modelling
  • Watertight isosurface shells
  • Drillhole traces coloured by logged unit

Estimation and uncertainty

Krige a block model with an anisotropic variogram and a declared search neighbourhood, then run conditional simulation to see the spread the single estimate hides.

  • Ordinary kriging with estimate and variance
  • Anisotropy as an ordered parameterisation
  • Sequential Gaussian realization stacks
  • Exceedance probability against a cut-off

Reporting that states its limits

Grade–tonnage curves carry a P10–P90 band across realizations, contained metal is computed per realization rather than multiplied from two means, and the report says plainly that it is a quantity and not a resource classification.

  • Grade–tonnage curves by cut-off
  • P10 / P50 / P90 bands
  • Correct contained-metal arithmetic
  • Classification left to the Competent Person

Provenance on every artifact

Each result is identified by the hash of its own content. Its manifest records the kernel and its digest, the input identities, the parameter hash, the randomness root, the acting identity, and the toolchain pins.

  • Content-addressed results
  • Lineage walked from manifests alone
  • Units, support, and epistemic class declared
  • Source database and tables recorded at capture

Assumptions you have to make

Parameters that decide the answer — the variogram, the tail models, the search neighbourhood, the stationarity mean — are required fields with no pre-filled value, and each explains why no default exists.

  • No silent defaults on assumptions
  • The reason shown beside each field
  • Validation before submit, re-validated at the boundary
  • Uninformed blocks refused, not estimated

Refusals instead of bad numbers

When a job is invalid the system refuses with a code, a category, and the stage it failed at — four categories, each demanding a different response — rather than returning a plausible number nobody can defend.

  • Validation refusals
  • Scientific refusals
  • Execution failures
  • Infrastructure failures

Inside the workflow

Screens from the working application — the same evidence a technical reviewer would be handed.

The deposit, as the drilling actually recorded it

Collars, downhole surveys, logged intervals, and assays come from the governed project database rather than a spreadsheet export. Desurveying computes each trace from surveyed attitude — and refuses to continue past the deepest survey station, because carrying on down the last known bearing is an assumption about ground nobody measured. Traces render in 3D coloured by the unit logged at each station, with nothing interpolated between them.

A geological reading, made geometric

Logged contacts become anchor points, an implicit scalar field fits a declared stratigraphic column through them, and isosurfaces contour that field into watertight shells. Nested shells contoured from the same field render as layers of one model, ordered by isovalue, each carrying its own recorded volume, surface area, and Euler characteristic — and an open stratigraphic surface is declared open rather than reported with a meaningless volume.

Estimation, and the uncertainty it hides

Ordinary kriging returns an estimate and its kriging variance per block, inside a search neighbourhood the job had to declare — a block with no sample in range is refused, not quietly interpolated from data the variogram says is uncorrelated. Sequential Gaussian simulation then produces a stack of equally probable realizations, and an exceedance model turns that stack into the probability each block clears a stated cut-off.

Reporting that states what it is — and what it is not

Grade–tonnage curves report tonnage above cut-off as P10, P50, and P90 across realizations. Contained metal is computed per realization and then averaged, because multiplying the reported mean tonnage by the reported mean grade gives a different — and wrong — number. And the report says plainly that it states a quantity, not a resource classification: classification under a reporting code is a Competent Person's judgement, and no category label is emitted here.

The foundation

A certified numerical foundation, consumed as a black box

The science does not live in the browser. GeoMine Scientist consumes a separate, governed compute platform through a machine-readable contract — the kernel registry, the job structure, the artifact manifests, and the refusal vocabulary — and performs no client-side numerics of its own. Nothing is recomputed to draw a picture.

Deterministic by declaration

Kernels declare a determinism class and an execution class, and a job whose declared policy disagrees with the kernel's is refused before anything runs.

Reproducible identity

The same job returns the same artifact identity. A one-ulp parameter change produces a different one, and worker count or restart changes nothing.

Verified on every read

Stored artifacts are content-addressed and re-verified when retrieved — a tampered byte or a dangling reference is an error, not a silent answer.

Parity-tested against a reference

The numerical chain — random number generation, normal-score transforms, variogram models, kriging solves, and simulation — is held to bit or trajectory parity against an independent reference implementation.

Beyond the resource model

A resource model is one stage. Ground engineering, mine water, lease-wide monitoring, and field operations run on the same governed foundation — so the drillholes behind a block model and the boreholes behind a pit slope are one dataset, not two.

GeoMine Scientist is one module of the platform

Mining runs on the same governed foundation as the GIS, groundwater, and geotechnical modules — so the drillholes behind a resource model and the ground investigation behind a pit wall are the same estate, not two systems.

Explore GeoMine Scientist

Mining FAQ

Straight answers on scope, classification, reproducibility, and where the geologist's judgement stays.

What is GeoMine Scientist?

GeoMine Scientist is the mining module of the SpatialTechSolutions geoscience platform. It covers the resource-modelling chain — drillhole desurveying, compositing, implicit geological modelling, ordinary kriging, sequential Gaussian simulation, exceedance probability, and grade–tonnage reporting — and attaches full provenance to every result.

Is the output a JORC or NI 43-101 resource statement?

No. GeoMine Scientist reports quantities — tonnes and grade above a cut-off, with an uncertainty band. Resource classification under a reporting code is a Competent Person's judgement, and the platform deliberately emits no category label of its own.

How is a result reproducible?

Every artifact is identified by the hash of its own content, and its manifest records the kernel and digest, input identities, parameter hash, randomness root, acting identity, and toolchain pins. Re-running the same job returns the same identity, so a reviewer can confirm a figure rather than take it on trust.

Why does the job builder refuse to pre-fill some parameters?

Parameters marked as assumptions — the variogram model, the tail models, the search neighbourhood, the stationarity mean — decide the reported answer. A pre-filled dropdown would be a decision nobody actually made, so those fields are required, empty, and each explains why no default exists.

Can it model more than one element?

Each modelled element needs its own variogram and its own reading of continuity. Additional assayed elements are carried through the data chain, and each is modelled deliberately rather than by stamping one continuity model across all of them.

Does it replace the geologist?

No. The geological interpretation — the stratigraphic column, contact polarity, anisotropy orientation, and classification — is supplied by the geologist and recorded as their claim, including the identity of the person who ran the job. The platform makes that reading geometric and reproducible; it does not invent it.

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Put your drillholes through it

Walk through desurveying, implicit modelling, kriging, simulation, and grade–tonnage reporting on a deposit your team already knows — and see what the provenance record looks like at the end of it.