The Appraisal of Mineral Resources

Abstract

Abstract The past decade has been a time of increased awareness of the importance of mineral resources to economic growth and well being, which has resulted in demands for resource appraisals. One result has been the involvement of more geologists in the activity of appraisal. It is time to examine carefully and critically the use of geoscience in the appraisal of mineral endowment. We must consider some fundamental questions: How well can a geologist estimate undiscovered mineral endowment? How good an estimator can the geologist become, given improvements in science, appropriate methodology, and resource data? Significant improvements in the appraisal of mineral endowment and resources will be severely impeded, if not made impossible, without advances in three major areas: geology-mineral endowment theory, geological and resource data, and analytical methods. Of these three, the first two may need the greatest improvement. The accuracy by which we can relate geology to mineral endowment, whether by quantification of judgment or by mathematical models, is strongly reflective of how well our data and experience describe relevant geologic processes and endowment. In our opinion, geomathematics is a wide and challenging new field in the earth sciences. Relatively little use has been made of this opportunity because the application of geomathematics is fraught with educational, organizational, and technical difficulties. However, as the usefulness of the statistical methods is demonstrated through successful case history studies, it is likely that increasingly large numbers of geologists will be convinced of the value of this approach and a more widespread usage can be expected.