Abstract
Soft iron ore consists of deeply weathered banded iron formation (BIF) formed in tropical regions at Quadrilatero Ferrifero—QF (Iron Quadrangle) - Brazil. Weathering may reach 500 m in depth. An important issue in supergene iron modelling is the evaluation of the boundaries between the high-grade soft ore, partly enriched itabirite and protore.A simple numerical model has been developed in order to simulate a leaching system in a two-dimensional matrix, composed of two types of materials: leachable and unleachable. An equal volume proportion and vertical banding were considered. Drilling data was used as multipoint attractors to remove leachable matrix nodes. Outputs from the simulated “leaching” model serve as a source of information to define structural parameters and lithotype proportions.The integration of a geostatistical simulation method with a leaching model improves the quality of the equally probable realisations of the iron ore enrichment phenomenon, generating the weathered profile images.Key wordsBanded iron formationweatheringrandom walksequential indicator simulationsupergene
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