Surpac Minex Group Growth Modelling

Geological modelling
This white paper discusses the meaning and generation of a geological model. The
emphasis is on gridded seam models which are commonly used in coal.
Mining companies make investment and production decisions based on their
understanding of the deposit geology. This geology is usually represented by a model.
In the distant past the model was a set of hand drawn sections and plans. Today
computers allow us to build those models electronically, and view them in 3D, section
or plan. The mine planning software industry generally uses two types of models:

1. Block models. These represent the deposit as a series of cubes of fixed or

variable size. Block models are ideal for massive deposits such as copper, gold
or iron ore. The block is located in space with an XYZ coordinate system and
attributes of the block store mineral information (e.g. percent Fe, grams Au).
2. Gridded models. These models represent the deposit as a series of layers.
Gridded models are ideal for layered deposits such as coal, bauxite, laterites
and phosphate. This paper is primarily focused on the gridded model although
some comments are common to both gridded and block models.

Gridded Models

Typically exploration drilling provides data values Z, at irregularly locations in X and

Y space. The process of gridding uses these irregularly spaced data values to create
or estimate grid values on a regular spacing. The imaginary grid is usually square but
can be rectangular. The size of the grid cells should reflect the data distribution. In
Figure 1 the data is spaced at 90 metres and 130 metres and a grid cell size of 25m has
been selected. Typically grid cells should be ¼ to 1/5 of the data spacing.

Figure 1: Typical grid spacing.

130m

90m

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The estimation of the Z grid values from irregular data values forms the body of this
paper.

Modelling algorithms

Minex provides three algorithms for estimating the grid values from the data values.
These are:
1. Distance weighting
2. Kriging (although not discussed in this version of paper) and
3. General or growth modelling.

Distance weighting methods assume an interpolated grid point value will be most
influenced by the nearest data point and more distant data points will have less
influence on determining the interpolated grid value. The most common distance
weighting method is inverse distance squared. ID2 assigns values to a mesh node
based on the inverse distance squared of the data point to the mesh node. The power
factor can be varied by the user but is frequently squared (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Inverse Distance method.

1
diα
λi = N
1 α
i =1
di

One feature of inverse distance weighting is that the value of a grid point is bounded
by the values of the data used to estimate that point. Thus if the seam ash is between
10 and 20 the grid values using inverse distance can only fall between 10 and 20.
This effect can be viewed positively as it is conservative, but it can also be considered
as a negative as it won’t highlight data trends.

In Figure 2, five data values 0,100,1000,100,100 (A,B,C,D,E) have been used to

create a grid at 25m centres using inverse distance squared. Three points are
significant:
1. Unless a grid cell falls exactly on a data point then the model has difficultly
honouring the data. This is apparent at point C.

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2. Between data points (e.g. B and C) the weights assigned to the data values
cause the resultant grid down below 100. Between points B and C this
averaging is caused by the downward influence of point A and D.
3. If inverse distance is used to generate a model outside the data then the model
will trend to the average of the data values.

Figure 2: Inverse distance weighting models tend to the average.

B E F
C

A D

SMG Growth Method

The growth method is a two stage process. Stage 1 surrounds the data with four grid
mesh points. In stage 2 the data is discarded and the grid mesh grows outwards to fill
in the remaining grid mesh cells. The growth method is based on a technique used by
IBM in the STAMPEDE1 planning software and described by Batcha and Reese.
They describe stage 1 as follows:

“to determine the mesh point values of a square containing one or more data
points, the centroid of these data points is first determined. If only one data
point falls within a square, the data point is the centroid). Next a plane is
established passing through the centroid. To establish this plane, values of
surrounding data points are taken into consideration. The technique involves
searching out the nearest data point falling within each of eight equal sectors
around the centroid.

These data points are then used in a least squares fit to determine a plane
passing exactly through the centroid. The weighting of the selected data point
values is such that the closer the data point to the centroid, the greater the
weight in the least squares fit. The value of the plane at each of the four mesh
points of the grid square is taken to be the value at that particular mesh
point.”

(1) STAMPEDE “Surface Techniques, Annotation and Mapping Programs for Exploration
Development and Engineering”

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Figure 3 shows a set of data points in red with the first pass nodes coloured in blue.
Figure 3: First pass of the growth method surrounds the data with grid nodes.

Stage 1 uses a sextodecimo (16 sectors) search to estimate the stage 1 nodes. In Figure
4 assuming one point per sector the top right and lower left points (marked x) are
excluded when determining the plane for the point at the sector centre.

Figure 4: Sextodecimo sector search to determine stage 1 nodes, data points

ticked are used if search is limited to one point per sector.

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The MINEX growth algorithm has been implemented with a limit of points per sector
(defaults to 3). This avoids unnecessary searching to find points. In forming the stage
1 nodes search or scan distance is critical. In Figure 4 the scan distance of R collects
points from all sectors to estimate the plane around the centre of the search. If the
scan were reduced to ½R then determining a value at the top of Figure 4 would not
use points at the bottom of Figure 4. Scan distance needs to balance the conflicting
aims of infilling the model but not mixing populations. If the data at the top and base
of Figure 4 is a single population then the scan distance should be adequate to bridge
this gap.

The second pass of the growth process grows away from these initial four mesh points
and progressively fills in the remaining model. Jones using oil exploration
terminology describes the second stage as:

After the nodes around all wells are calculated the wells are removed from
further consideration. The program then makes a series of passes over the
grid. At each pass it calculates values for any grid nodes that have not been
assigned a value and that are adjacent to an assigned node. In other words,
each iteration enlarges the calculated region around the original well
locations.”

The stage 2 process is also described by Crain as follows:

The second stage fills in the remaining mesh points. These are calculated by
taking the average of two planes (a “secant plane” and a “tangent plane”)
calculated at each grid intersection. The secant plane is calculated in a
manner analogous to the first stage. The tangent plane is produced by a “first
order finite difference equation”. This generation proceeds outwards from the
known mesh values of stage one.”

The MINEX implementation is very similar although the secant plane is usually
described as interpolation and the tangent plane as extrapolation. In Figure 5 the
secant plane is generated for point X by using the nodes that match the searching
parameters (coloured green in Figure 5). A hardwired control also affects the secant
plane. Nodes must exist in at least three of the sectors to generate the secant plane. As
with stage 1 the weights of the nodes is based on distance to build a least squares
plane. However if there are 5 or less points available to estimate the secant plane then
an inverse distance weighted average estimate is used in lieu of a least squares
estimate.

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Figure 5: Generation of secant planes for point X during stage 2 is

controlled by green nodes (assuming for clarity one point per sector)

As the secants planes bridge across the void between stage 1 nodes, they do not reflect
the gradient or trend of the data. This gradient or trend is supplied by the tangent
planes. The tangent plane is determined by only using the local nodes. In Figure 6 the
yellow nodes determine the tangent plane. A first order partial differentiation
equation is used to determine the tangent value. This is determined from triangles
formed at the surrounding 4 mesh points at the node to be estimated. In Figure 6 two
triangles will used to calculate a tangent value at node X. If no triangles can be
formed due to a lack of node values then only the secant value is used as the estimated
value.

Generally however two estimates of node X are available a secant value and a tangent
value. In Batcha and Reese’s implementation X is assigned the average of the tangent
and secant planes. The MINEX implementation allows the user to control the weight
assigned to the extrapolation (tangent) estimate. By default the weighting is 2/3
interpolation or secant and 1/3 extrapolation or tangent. In Minex the user can disable
the extrapolation estimate; this will tend to flatten the model between data points.
With extrapolation on the user may override the default weight ratio of 2/3:1/3
although the ratio can only increase to 0.5:0.5 (secant : tangent).

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Figure 6: Yellow points are used in determining tangent planes for node
X.

Unlike inverse distance methods the growth method can generate values that exceed
the data values. This occurs for two reasons:

1. In stage 1 the plane around each data point is built from the surrounding data
and can thus generate a node greater than or less than the data values.

2. The tangent plane or extrapolation component of stage 2 as it grows form a

local trend

This point is illustrated in Figure 6.

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Figure 6: Growth Method used to model data from Figure 2.

ID2

Growth

The growth method is often explained in MINEX marketing using a simplified section
view. These sections are presented in Appendix A.

References

BATCHA, J.B. and REESE J.R. 1964. Surface determination and automatic
contouring for mineral exploration extraction and processing. Colorado School of
Minex Quarterly, 59: 1-14.

CRAIN I.K 1970. Computer interpolation and contouring of two dimensional data a
review. Geoexploration 8: 71-86.

JONES T.A., HAMILTON D.E. and JOHNSON C.R. Contouring Geologic Surfaces
with the computer. 1986 Van Nostrand Reinhold Company.

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Appendix A: Growth Method

Figures A1 to A9 present the growth method in a cross sectional view.

Figure A1: Four drill holes with the seam data as shown. Step 1 the data is
surrounded with the grid mesh or nodes.

D
A B C

Borehole

Coal Seam

Mesh Line

Figure A2: Regional trends are created around B using A and C and
around C using B and D.

D
A B C

Borehole

Coal Seam
Mesh Line

Trend around B Trend around C

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Figure A3: Planes are moved so they are matched to data points B and C.

D
A B C

Borehole

Coal Seam
Mesh Line

Adjusted trend around B

Adjusted trend around C

Figure A4: Mesh node values are estimated around the data points.

D
A B C

Borehole

Coal Seam
Mesh Line
Computed Value

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Figure A5: Data is discarded before stage 2 is commenced.

Coal Seam

Mesh Line
Computed Value

Figure A6: Missing nodes are estimated from first stage nodes using
Extrapolation and Interpolation.

Coal Seam

Mesh Line
Computed Value

Interpolated
Extrapolated

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Figure A7: New point is estimated by averaging the extrapolation and

interpolation

New Point Coal Seam

Mesh Line
Computed Value

Interpolated
Extrapolated

Figure A8: The node from Figure A7 is used as data to estimate the next
node using the extrapolation and interpolation process.

Coal Seam
New Point Mesh Line
Computed Value

Interpolated
Extrapolated

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Figure A9: Final surface showing smooth connections between mesh points.

Coal Seam

Mesh Line
Computed Value

Modelled Surface

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