Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Prepared and Presented by Francis F. Pitard Francis Pitard Sampling Consultants, LLC
Your decisions are only as good as your samples! Communicating the importance of Correct Sampling
to management,
to the board,
to shareholders,
to geologists and drillers, to miners and metallurgists, to analytical chemists, to statisticians, to sales people, to get cash flow, more profit, and added share value.
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If stakeholders cannot see the value of correct sampling, it is the companys responsibility to show them through Education of management to get resources, Training of key personnel to get results, Education of geologists, miners, metallurgists to monitor and verify the quality of data, So statisticians can perform reliable, believable risk assessments.
internal guidelines,
sustained training, enforcement auditing. be monitored for its added value through: improved metal recovery, improved conciliation, added stakeholder value.
Small-scale variability, which can be called the Irrelevant Variability: It is a nuisance. Large-scale variability, which can be called the Relevant Variability: It is the one we must measure to know our processes better.
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The four solutions to minimize a catastrophic inflation of V[0] are: Optimizing Sampling Protocols, Implementing Sampling Protocols using correct sampling systems, Preserving samples integrity, Minimizing the Analytical Error.
Contamination Losses
Alteration
Human errors, ignorance Fraud
E D G
Segregation
Former Sub-drill
Current Sub-drill
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3 6
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Name the possible error (IDE, IEE, IWE, or IPE?) taking place at each of the following points, and give solutions. You have 10 minutes.
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Falling stream
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4 10
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11 1
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Francis Pitard's drawing protected by copyright law, 2004
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Francis Pitard's drawing protected by copyright law, 2004
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Because all the possible problems created by each point addressed in the 4 exercises, that should be solved within minutes, usually are the object of unnecessary doubts and arguments, time-consuming meetings, endless arguments with manufacturers and engineering firms, very expensive bias tests followed by doubtful statistics,
furthermore,
because each point can lead to devastating money losses for the unaware company. Lets give a few stunning examples.
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US $ 134 000 000 loss difference between a bad sampling and subsampling protocol and a better one, for blast-holes, over a 10-year period.
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Case #2: An incorrect sampling system for the tailings of a floatation plant
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2 S IDE n n
2 S IWE n n
S
n
2 FSEn n
2 GSEn
2 HE1
V [0]
2 S AE n n
2 S INE
Francis Pitard's drawing protected by copyright law, 2004
2 S IEE n n
n
2 S IPE n
n
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Large-scale Variability: The variability you need to see to optimize your operations
When the small-scale variability overwhelms the large-scale variability relevant to optimize your operations, the following problems take place: Endless meetings to solve puzzles, argue, and finger pointing, Correcting factors are applied until data fit normality, Geologists and Geostatisticians cannot do their work, Miners and metallurgists are at war, Companys performance deteriorates, Management is not happy, Market share value goes down.
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To find new natural resources To quantify natural resources To show reasonable continuity of natural resources To understand conciliation problems during mining
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It is important to measure the anisotropy of a geological unit. Grade trends may be different North-South than East-West or than along a vertical axis. Variogram ranges need to be defined in different directions. Density of drilling needs to be optimized in different directions. Ore continuity and zone of influence need to be defined in different directions. A reliable geological model must be created.
With a large V[0] these critically important tasks, leading to a reliable feasibility study, become weak.
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Selection of ore grade control drilling pattern, and drilling density Selection of a Kriging technique Selection of a realistic, economic cutoff grade Selection of a pit design Selection of an acceptance level for conciliation differences between ore grade control and the geological model
With a large V[0] these critically important tasks, leading to a reliable recovery of natural resources, become weak.
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Believable metallurgical accounting needs to monitor performance. Control of key process parameters need to be implemeted. Process trends need to be tamed in due time. Process cycles, always very costly, need to be identified and either eliminated or minimized. Reliable control charts must be updated at many places. Over-correction of the process must be important tasks, leading to a reliable prevented.
With a large V[0] these critically recovery of natural resources, become weak.
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Customers like a fair price, but hate bad surprises on product quality. Penalty application is a common way of doing business: What costs me must cost you! You cannot control the quality of a product after the fact, but you should implement the many things that lead to a good product, from the geological model, to the mine, and to the plant.
With a large V[0] these critically important tasks, leading to a reliable quality of products, become weak.
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A long list of benefits and opportunities: How can good sampling practices give access to all this?
Good Sampling Practices, just like Good Laboratory Practices, is the heart of the management decision process. Decisions are not made by looking at a deposit or at a process.
By Proxy!
Do the samples have authority to represent a deposit or a process? Your decisions are only as good as your samples.
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If cause eliminated:
standardize
If cause not eliminated:
re-analyze
Lost opportunities with emphasis on effects of problems Continuous improvement of Mining Process with emphasis on causes of problems
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Director of Standards of Mining Process: The Synergy Necessary for Mining Process Efficiency
Compulsory actions
Accountability
Communication with top management at a company's operations Francis Pitard's drawing protected by copyright law, 2004
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