Geostatistical estimation of available reserves of bentonite for SUD CHEMIE

 

Industry: Mining - Geostatistical survey

Location: Greece

Duration: 2 months (2009)

This project involved the estimation of the bentonite reserves in a specific green field area that was appointed by Süd-Chemie Inc.
The scope of the work involved:

• The filtering of all geological data that we were presented with. More specifically, the contractor had already performed a great number of exploratory drillholes from which samples had been extracted and had their geochemistry analyzed.
• The above data were classified and categorized in an electronic database, in a way that the distinct sample data could accurately reproduce the results of the drilling process.
• In addition to this, a Digital Terrain Model was synthesized with the use of high resolution contour maps of the area’s topography. This in turn allowed us to create a solid model that could be used to approximate the bedrock and underground formations.
• The aforementioned “Drillhole Database” was then used to perform a geostatistical survey of the general area and in turn to interpolate the sample geology and geochemistry to block model.

This allowed us to accurately calculate the bentonite reserves in the area, pinpoint the high quality deposits and determine the areas of future quarry development.