Geological Resources Evaluation

Recommended Prerequisites

Mineralogy and Geology; Structural Geology; Mineral Resources; Geological mapping;  General mathematics; geomathematics.

Teaching Methods

Lectures and practical with carrying out laboratory and field work. Teaching methods fall into: the Cognitive Model of Education - oral presentation with deductive strategies (presentation of a statement introductory organizer, progressive differentiation and integrative synthesis); critical teaching with the presentation and discussion of problems; research, with deductive and inductive strategies; in Learning Interpersonal Models - Research Work Group.

Learning Outcomes

After this unit the students should be able to estimate quantities of geological resources existing in a given area, classifying them accordingly to the recommendations of international institutions (e.g. CRIRSCO and UN). In addition they should be able to understand all the value chain from the extraction of the useful substance(s) up to final the refinement (usually metallurgy), and they should be able to understand typical contracts between the mines and the buyers of the concentrates. 

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. General concepts on natural resources and geological resources.

2. Geological resources on portuguese law.

3. Grade/tonnage curves.

4. Resources and reserves estimation.

5. Optimization of open pits.

6. Applied geostatistics to geological resources estimation.

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam (40% Theoretical questions + 60% Practical questions) : 100.0%

Bibliography

Arndt, N., Ganino, C., 2012, Metals and Society: an Introduction to Economic Geology, Springer, 155 p.

Wellmer, F.W., Dalheimer, M., Wagner, M., 2008, Economic Evaluations in Exploration, 2ª Ed. Springer, 250 p.

Sinclair, A.J. e Blackwell, G.H., 2002, Applied Mineral Inventory Estimation. University Press, Cambridge.

Clark, I., Harper, W.V., 2000, Practical geostatistics, Ecosse North America Pub.

Legislação Nacional sobre Recursos Geológicos