Isatis offers the methodologies that help you optimize drill programs

KAZ Minerals
Ashley Brown
Manager, Resource Delineation

“The biggest cost on mines when looking at the mining and geology departments is drilling.

Being able to design drill programs is of vital importance so that you maximize the data that you get from your drilling.  Too much drilling is expensive and time consuming.  Too little drilling is also expensive and costly as mining planning can be negatively affected.

Knowing your deposit and using the correct drilling density is vital for effective estimation and for mine planning.  Using the Extension Variance methodology to determine expected results for various drill spacings is an effective way to manage drill programs.

Understanding the Discrete Gaussian Change of Support and the effect the neighbourhood choice has on the smoothness of the Grade Tonnage curve is of vital importance to avoid reconciliation issues at the production stage.  These mistakes are all too common.

I used Isatis for optimizing drillhole spacing. This saved considerably on drilling costs and on time.