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 file
Menu pick new Reserves
Logic.
The New Plan Window Opens
We will begin by
Identifying our file
10 (PCF) – table of
Contents 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 going
To be really hard.
Then click open
Oh Baby! Its In There
Now do it for the block
Model
(your file 15)
Just to Keep Life Exciting This Time It’s
a Pull Down Menu
Remember – the program
Now has your table of
Contents so it knows
Exactly which file 15’s
You 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 a
Fossilized placer gold that
Was intruded by a
Copper bearing intrusive.
One might choose to have
2 different types of ore.
It is now possible a block
Might be made up of W
Percent ore 1, X percent
Of 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, primary
Sulfide (just like your model) – We will usually keep false – no need to track multiple ore
Percentages.
Treat Missing Values as 0
Most block models contain
Enough area around the
Ore that we cannot
Reasonably interpolate
Mineral values from distant
Drill hole.
Most model valuing routines
Leave no value here.
If you don’t know their
Is mineral do you want to
Assume there is none?
Most people stick with True
On this one.
The Next 2 Lines are Tricky
Blue Sky and Air (20%)
When I figure the ore tonnage is this
Block 20% ore?
Or is it (100%-20%)*20% = 16% ore?
Ore
(20%)
Did we already consider that part of
This block was air when we measured
Ore percent.
For your block model – and most things
I’ve shown you how to do, the answer
Is yes.
Now What Do I Do?
Is the ore clipped to
Topo – ie did you already
Eliminate the air
Portion of the block
True
Use Topo/ Partial Min
True means I would treat
That block as 20% ore.
False means I would multiple
Both the ore% and rock%
Ie – 16%
This time the default master
Leads us down the wrong
Path. Change it to true.
It Needs the Item that Gives the Rock
Percentage in the Block Model
Topo is the culturally
Popular 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 case
We have such
Things as oxide
Sulfide
And secondary
Enrichment.
This is in our
Rtype variable
I Click on the Line and on the Pull
Down Select the Block Model Variable
Rtype is our type
Of ore
The % of a block
That is ore is the
Rock%
Density is
Contained or
Stored in SG
I Need to Explain the Items I Want to
Track
Click the plus
Grade icon
To identify a
Grade you want
To track
The new grade
Dialog box
Appears.
My First Interest is the Copper Grade
I type in the label of my choice
MWA means mass weighted average
Ie weighting by mass.
In this case that means
A copper grade of 1% calculates
Out this way
1 metric tonne is 2205 lbs
1% 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 be
A crude estimate of
The value per tonne
Of Ore.
Click to Add a New Field
The Dialog Opens
I’ve got what I
Want here so I
Will click Ok
Put the Curser in the Edit Box and Click
the 3 Cute Dots
You get the expression
Editor to write your
Equation.
We Type in the Expression and Click
OK
Note – the equation
Entered here reflects
An example of how
Metals might be
Valued. You will use
Your own price
Estimates for the
Values of the metals
We Next Move to Materials Set
Here we set
Up zones and
Apply cut-off
Points for
Reporting
Purposes.
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 your
Reserves logic and copy the applicable
Fields.
If We Go Auto on This It Picks the
Values out of My Ore Type Variable
I can now edit
For things to
Make more
Sense.
I Will Retype Rtype 8 for Waste and
Make 0 a Default
I can put the
Curser in a field
And retype which
Is how I got waste
And set 0 as
The value
A click on a box
Will make
Something the
Default
(remember I
Said assume a
Nil value was to
Be 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 by
Its grade – ie I can put ore into different
Grade range binds.
This can be very valuable for helping me to determine
How much of my tonnage meets certain grade
Requirements.
The First Question I Have to Answer is
Grade of What
Control Grade Allows Me to Pick
Any of the Grade Items I selected for
My reserves logic.
For a One Product Mine or a One
Product with a byproduct we pick
Up on the side this is a no brainer.
For a coproduct mine where ore value
Comes from more than one product
This can be an issue.
Should my cuttoff be set on copper
Gold, 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 interest
That 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 copper
Mines 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 the
Red X
We Now Prepare to Tell the Computer
the Geometry of What We Want to
Report On
We can report on
The content of
Specific cuts we
Drew out
We can report on
Content between
Surfaces
We can simply set
A range on a
Portion of a model
Lets Start Simple
(What’s in my Block Model)
When I
Select range
I have control
Of what part
Of the block
Model I want
To study.
In this case
Lets try the
Whole 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 it
Calculated a
Cut.
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 the
Model is waste
I also see something is Wacko in Denmark
How the crud does 762.5 million cubic meters
Of material become 60 million tonnes
We are not mining helium here
What the Heck Happened to My
Tonnes
We know that volume * sg
Item is the tonnage
Copper ore has about a 2.3
To 2.5 sg
SO WHAT HAPPENED!
There is my
Problem –
The block model
I know I pulled sg right out of the block model so lets see
Is missing
What in there.
sg
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 being
Below our cut-off
139*2.4 = 334 million tonnes of low grade material
Grade Tonnage Relation
I can get the
Report to “bin” my
Tonnages by
Cut-off Grade
All I had to do was
To do my rows by
Cut-off grade instead
Of 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 tonnes
Leaving us 1.35 billion tonnes
At 0.2 we loose another 30.9 million cubic meters *2.4 = 74 million tons
Leaving us about 1.28 billion
And so it goes – plot.
What More Could We Ask
I could get
That cut-off
Grade
Break-down
By ore type
And bench
I have a great
May options
For organizing
output
I Could be Displeased that my Cut-Offs
are in Copper%
Remember we made this decision
When we set up our reserves logic
To 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 be
Cu%* $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 be
Interested in reserves
Not in a pit
Remember I Said We Could Compute
Reserves Between Two Gridded Surface Files
Pick Surfaces
Go Back to Geometry
Anyone think I’m about
Ready to compute reserves
Between an undisturbed
Gridded surface and the
Ultimate 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 check
Off my pre and
Post mine
surface
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