Mineral resource + engineering, economic and legal feasibility = ore reserve

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 93, No. 1038, 2000

M. Vallée, Géoconseil Marcel Vallée Inc., Sainte-Foy, Québec

Several reviews of mineral project performance in the past 35 years indicate a pattern of occasional, but recurrent, mining project failures due to shortcomings in geological information and estimation, mineral processing and metallurgical testing, feasibility study objectives and requirements, and project start-up methods. A commitment to quality assurance and continuous improvement methods and to obtaining ÒENOUGH DATA, OF APPROPRIATE QUALITYÓ is essential. Recent international and Canadian proposals for mineral resource and ore reserve definitions have taken a non-prescriptive stance that will undermine the formulation of requirements, guidelines and industry standards for efficient deposit delineation and estimation, and for the determination of project feasibility. To help reduce problems, every feasibility study supporting a mine development and production decision should be based on objectives and methods adequate to reach completion targets similar to the bankersÕ, as a good business target for a profitable project. In a resource/reserve system, the use of reserve should be restricted to

Mots Clés: Feasibility studies, Ore reserve estimation, Resource definition, Reserve definition, Setting New Standards.