Modeling Workflow PDF
Modeling Workflow PDF
Modeling Workflow PDF
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Creating a grid set between polyline end points allows you to create a quick sectional grid
set that has uneven spacing, and is non-orthogonal, and/or is non-parallel. If the grid planes
are parallel, orthogonal, or non orthogonal, simply create a 2-point plan polyline (Polyline
| create 2D | polyline) along the orientation that represents the first section plane in the
grid set. Using the option Polyline | Offset, adjust the next section plane in the grid set with
an appropriate offset distance and build all necessary section lines (Figure 1 - top). If the
grid planes are non-parallel and non-orthogonal, digitize a set of 2-point plan polylines in
different directions to represent each section. Under the Grid Set Creation dialog, choose
the Grid Set Definition Between Polyline End Points and select the polylines representing
the section lines (Figure 1 - bottom).
Figure 1. Using Offset Polylines and creating a grid set using the Between Polyline End Points option.
Once the grid set has been created, you should rename all the planes for consistency.
Rename the grid plane on the Planes tab in the Grid Set Properties; the use of wildcards
with a prefix is useful in this case.
Although it is possible to query a grid set plane to retrieve the plane name, it is also Mintec, Inc.
convenient to turn a grid set into a separate polyline geometry object as a visual indicator. Global
The function Surface | Create | From Grid Set or Edit Grid… is a quick way to turn a grid Mining
set into a geometry object. Choose the option to create polygons and check the naming option Software
Elements by plane (Figure 2). New geometry elements are created containing polygons. A Solutions
few adjustments in the properties are needed for proper labeling (Figure 2). You can densify
Since
the nodes along the polyline in order to give you better control of the label position.
1970
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 2 The picture on the left shows the dialog Create Geometry From Grids set up to create polygon outlines and
name the resulting elements by plane. The picture on the right shows the set up for labeling the resulting object.
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Global Figure 3. A plan view showing the new grid set (in red) with a drillhole view.
Mining
Software Setting the appropriate Projection Volume and Viewer Clipping
Solutions One of the most important properties in a Drillhole View is the Projection volume (Figure
4). Making the right adjustment for the appropriate grid set ensures that no data is omitted.
Since
1970
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 4 shows the upper portion of the Drillhole Properties | Display tab. In this example, the Projection volume is
set to +50/-50.
On the Viewer Properties | Clipping tab you can set the plane range when the viewer is in
2D or a volume range when the viewer is in 3D (Figure 5). The Plane Filter Range shows
the number of planes specified before or after the current plane and has an effect similar to a
light table. This is a great guide when digitizing polygons of similar shape from one section
to the next. Activating the “planes” will show all information on, before, or after planes.
Activating the “selected planes” will show only selected data on planes before and after the
current plane. This last option can help you keep a cleaner view of the polygons while they
are being digitized.
The Volume Clipping Range controls the clipping of the 3D display. The volume clipping
can be set on or off with the toggle button Viewer Volume Clipping on the MS3D desktop
toolbar . Setting the volume clipping to show a few sections at a time can give a clearer
pictures of the data under study.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 6 showing two viewers. The Viewer on the left is in 3D mode, viewing in plan view, and the Viewer on the right is
a cross sectional view in 2D mode.
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Global
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1970 Figure 7. The Drillhole View Properties | Display tab and the distance labels at the end of two drillholes.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
line. This is particularly useful to vizualize bins of interest (Figure 8). Creating this visual
marker can help you get a clearer picture of the drillhole item of interest.
Displaying 2D strips
In 2D mode, strips can be added to the downhole trace to show different items and cutoff
values. Strips are like a layer system and can be customized to highlight the appropriate
information for the item of interest. In the example (Figure 9), the drillhole is shown with
a Down Hole Tick Strip with a Distance off section every 50m, a Color Strip colored by
Zone item and a Color Strip displaying the CU value as histogram. It is also possible to
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display geotechnical information adding a Dip Meter Strip or a Geology Stick Strip.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 9 shows the Drillhole View Properties | Strips tab, the Down Hole Tick Definition dialog and the Strip
Definition dialog.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 10. Shows the Drillhole Properties | Points tab set up to create markers at the contact between geologic units.
The picture on the right illustrates the result.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 11. A cross sectional 2D view of drillhole data with a digitized polygon that outlines drillhole item ALT.
To build a solid, start by digitizing polygons on cross sections. Snapping the polygons to
drillhole intervals can add to the precision of your interpretation. The snapping process
is done in 3D. Therefore, it is necessary to first convert the digitized polyline from 2D to
3D (Polyline | Convert 2D to 3D). After activating the Point Snap function (Snap | Point
Snap), polygon points can be moved and snapped to drillhole intervals (Figure 12). Note if
polygons are converted back to 2D, the snapping will be lost.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Once the solid is linked, merged, and assigned an appropriate material type, drillhole
intervals can be coded. The Drillhole View Properties | Code DH tab has the drillhole
coding options (Figure 13). In this example, we will code item, Zone using CODE by
majority code. The geometry used to code can be exported and added to a multi-run for
model reproducibility; click on the Export… button and the output file will be named with
an mscode extension. This .mscode file is used with program MSCODE later on in a multi-
run with MineSight Compass™ (MSCompass) procedure runcmd.dat (with the command
syntax: mscode –t filename.mscode).
After the coding is complete, a new drillhole view should be created with strips
representing the new coding display. Figure 14 below shows the original ALT interval
on the right side of the drillhole trace and the newly coded ZONE item on the left side.
This example shows that the first ALT interval of drillhole 85-80 should have been part of
the solid that represents the mineralized zone. This can be adjusted without changing the Mintec, Inc.
solid’s design using MSCompass procedure p20201.dat Append Assay Data. A list of the Global
changes is made in a txt file using the drillhole ID, interval and the code to be change. The Mining
procedure can be used to load the new code in to the appropriate interval, overwriting the Software
old code. See the March 2008 MineSight in the Foreground for details. Solutions
Since
1970
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 14. Shows a comparison between the actual logged value for item ALT and the calculated value. This illustrates
how a drillhole could end up being omitted from the solid that represents the mineralized zone. You can use MSCompass
procedure p20201.dat to assign code values from an ASCII file (zone.csv in this example).
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Histograms, Box plots, and Cumulative Probability Plots are all tools available in MSDA to
compare the distribution of data values. To quickly create a graph for item ZONE, check the Mintec, Inc.
box Separate filters while adding the Filter under the Filter tab (Figure 16). Global
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 16. Shows how to quickly create a graph for item ZONE.
The following histograms confirm the trend observed in Zones 2 and 3 and in Zone 5; the
distribution of Cu value is different than in the rest of the Zones (Figure 17).
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Figure 17. Shows histograms that confirm the trend observed in Figure 15.
With the above observation we can group the data into four different domains, as outlined
in the table below. Note that the project geologist’s advice should also be considered in
the creation of domains and that domains can later be revisited after the variography has
been completed.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
DOMAIN ZONE
1 2
2 3
3 5
4 1,4, and 6
Once the domains have been established, use MSCompass procedure p20801.dat User-
Calcs (Assays) to set the appropriate domain number in item DOMN (Figure 18). The
logical steps in this example are to set DOMN = 4 for all zones and then run the procedure
three more times to overwrite DOMN with DOMN=1 for ZONE ranging from 2 to 2,
DOMN=2 from ZONE ranging from 3 to 3 and DOMN= 3 for ZONE = 5.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Other codes can be transferred from the assay file to the composite file by using the
MSCompass procedure p50501.dat Add drillhole geology codes to composite file. If
many codes need to be transferred, a multi-run should be designed. In the example below,
the original alteration information is transferred to an appropriate item in the composite file
(Figure 20).
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 21. A Drillhole View of the composite file after compositing by fixed length. DOMN is displayed on the left side of
the drillhole trace. ALT and copper values are displayed along the right side.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 22. Screen captures of the Geometry Set Editor dialog (left picture) and the Model View Properties | Code
Model dialog (right picture).
In this example we will code model item ZONE using the CODE by majority code option
(Figure 23). By setting the Min value of total percent to code block to 50%, at least 50 % of
a block volume needs to be within the solid to be coded.
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1970 Figure 23. The Model View Properties |
Code Model tab set up to code model item
ZONE using the CODE by majority code
option.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Figure 24. A 2D cross section showing model blocks, drillholes, and the solid “ZONE”. This shows the results after the blocks
have been coded. Blocks that occur inside the solid are displayed in blue and blocks outside the solid are displayed in gray.
The geometry used to code the block model should also be exported and added to a multi-
run for model reproducibility. Click on the Export… button and the resulting output file
will be named with the .mscode extension. This .mscode file can used with program
MSCODE later on in a multi-run with MSCompass procedure runcmd.dat (with the
command syntax: mscode –t filename.mscode).
For more information on model coding, refer to the 2008 Annual Mintec Seminar workshop
paper on the subject (Geomodeling and Coding).
Next run the MSCompass script, cp-ModelCalcTool.pyc Model Calculation script
to assign DOMAIN codes the same way we did for the assays. This MSCompass script
uses Python™ syntax to calculate model values. Thus you have the ability to create and run
complicated model calculations in one run (Figure 25).
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
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You can also use MSCompass procedure p61201.dat User-Calcs (Model) set up in a
similar way to how p20801.dat User-Calcs (Assays) was used in a previous section.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
The calculations are complex, so just like procedure p20801.dat, you will need to run this
procedure more than once (or else in a multi-run).
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Figure 27. Panels from MSCompass procedure pintrp.dat where the search parameters used in interpolation are set up.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
If needed, use program Variogram.exe to convert ellipsoid axes and rotation angles
to represent the y axis (major) as the longest. In the example below (Figures 28 and 29),
the parameters of major = 146, minor=320 and vertical=94 with a rotation of r1=0, r2=0,
and r3=0 in the Variogram Converter dialog could have been entered in the MSCompass
procedure Optional Search Parameter panel using major = 320, minor=146 and vertical=94
with a rotation of r1=270, r2=0 and r3=0 for an identical interpolation result (Figure 30).
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Checking the Anisotropic distance option in the procedure will further reduce the influence
of composites along the minor axis (Figure 30). This is an important option while doing an
inverse distance interpolation as it will influence the weight of each composite. This option is
less important in a kriging interpolation since the variograms handle sample weighting.
Within the same interpolation run, it is possible to store polygonal grade assignments
(Figure 31). Polygonally interpolated grades are a good base for model comparison and
can aid in evaluating the reliability of other interpolation methods. On the same panel,
confidence items, later used to classify the model, are defined.
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Figure 31. A screen capture of Global
the Interpolation Control Mining
Items panel in procedure
pintrp.dat.
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It is important to check the option Check for fixed length or ZMID composites if the Since
composites used were stored at the midpoint of the composite (Figure 32).
1970
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
The last two panels in MSCompass procedure pintrp.dat offer code matching options to
control what data will be used for interpolating each block (Figure 33). The Block limiting
option will restrict the interpolation calculations to only those blocks containing specific
codes (such as for a particular domain). This is practical when we want to use different
interpolation parameters for different geologic domains in our project. The Code matching
option uses only those composites for the interpolation calculations that have the same
code as the model blocks. This method is commonly used for hard boundaries, such as in a
particular geologic domain, and prevents a composite value from a different domain from
influencing the block being calculated.
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Figure 33. A screen capture of the
1970 panel in pintrp.dat where Block
Limiting and Geologic Matching
are set up.
Alternatively, on the same panel you can use the ZONE level instead of domains to allow
composite matching to honor the original geological interpolation. In the example below
(Figure 34), the blocks selected for this particular interpolation run are those model blocks
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
with a ZONE code of 1, 4 or 6, which is equivalent to a DOMN code of 4. Using the Code
Matching option, the block within zone 6 will only use those composites with ZONE =6,
and similarly for blocks within zone 1 and 4.
Filter criteria for the composites to be used in the calculations can also be set using the
optional composite data selection option (Figure 35). In this example, only the composites
with a length greater then 2.5m will be considered for the interpolation. On the same panel,
the RESET or OMIT options are important when doing interpolation in passes. If a second
pass is being run with more restrictive parameters, using the OMIT option is mandatory in
order to keep existing interpolation values previously calculated.
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Figure 35. The Optional Composite Global
Data Selection panel from Mining
MSCompass procedure pintrp.
Software
dat. Use this panel to set filtering
criteria for the composites to be used in Solutions
interpolation calculations. Since
For reserve classification, calculate CLASS codes using the same model calculation 1970
procedures mentioned above for the domain (DOMN) calculation. You can also run
MCompass procedure modcls.dat Assign Model Code by Items Ranges.
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Modeling - A Typical Workflow
Multi-Runs
Finally, the modeling and interpolation process can be tied in to a multi-run for model
reproducibility and audit trail purposes. The example below shows typical steps to achieve
a coded and interpolated model (Figure 36). Notice the MSCompass procedure runcmd.
dat is on the list twice; some procedures are run more than once to honor variables.
Figure 36. A multi-run setup putting the various steps for modeling at once.
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Global
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Software Figure 37. The setup for
Solutions MSCompass procedure
Since runcmd.dat.
1970
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