Title: A novel application of Cellular Automata for the evaluation and modelling of mineral resources

Authors: Antonio Carlos Martins; Beck Nader; Giorgio De Tomi

Addresses: Department of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Av. Prof. Mello Moraes, 2373–Cidade Universitária, Butantã, 05508-900, São Paulo/SP, Brasil. ' Department of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Rua Desembargador Leão Starling 200, 31310-370 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. ' Department of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, University of Sao Paulo, Av. Prof. Mello Moraes 2373, 05508-900, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil

Abstract: This paper presents the results from the current research on the application of Cellular Automata (CA) for modelling and evaluating mineral resources, including a discussion of its advantages and limitations vs. geostatistical methods. Geostatistics enables the estimation of key variables associated with a mineral deposit from field samples, and uses the variogram function to quantify spatial correlations between them. In contrast, CA uses the variogram function according to an evolution rule and estimates key variables nodes of a grid, which match the block model commonly used in mining. The practical application of CA for estimating key variables of a coal seam deposit in Southern Brazil indicates a significant potential for CA as an estimation tool for mineral deposits.

Keywords: regional variables; variogram; kriging; cellular automata; mineral resources; modelling; evaluation; estimation; geostatistics; mining; block model; coal seam deposits; Brazil.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2011.045472

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2011 Vol.3 No.4, pp.303 - 315

Published online: 17 Feb 2012 *

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