Mining Engineering
Exploration and Geology
Resource Estimation and Reserve Evaluation
Turning drill data into a resource estimate, and a resource into a reserve that survives review.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Intermediate
- Fee from
- On enquiry
Overview
A resource estimate is a model of something nobody has seen, built from a tiny sample of it, and every number downstream depends on it. This week covers the process end to end: data validation, geological domaining, compositing, variography, estimation by the common methods, and classification. Reserve conversion follows, where modifying factors and a mine plan turn a resource into something that can be reported and financed. Reconciliation against production runs through it as the honest test.
Who should attend
Resource and mine geologists, mining engineers working with block models, technical services managers, and reviewers and auditors of estimates.
What you will be able to do
- Validate drillhole data and understand its limitations.
- Build geological domains that control estimation sensibly.
- Apply inverse distance and kriging, and know when each suits.
- Classify a resource and defend the classification.
- Convert resource to reserve with modifying factors documented.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
Data
- Drilling, logging, sampling and assay
- Validation, twinning and quality control
- Density, and how often it is wrong
Day 2
Geology and domains
- Interpretation and wireframing
- Domaining by grade population and structure
- Compositing and top cutting
Day 3
Estimation
- Variography and spatial continuity
- Inverse distance and ordinary kriging
- Block size, search strategy and smoothing
- Conditional simulation in outline
Day 4
Classification
- Measured, indicated and inferred
- Confidence, and the evidence for it
- Reporting codes and competent person responsibility
Day 5
Reserves and reconciliation
- Modifying factors and the mine plan
- Cut off grade and its sensitivity to price
- Reconciliation, and what a persistent gap means
What you leave with
- A validated dataset and domain model for a sample deposit.
- A completed estimate with classification rationale.
- A reconciliation framework against production.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Lagos, Nigeria | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Accra, Ghana | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Maseru, Lesotho | Classroom | R15,000 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.