Semi-variograms and kriging techniques in iron ore reserve categorization: application at Jebel Wenza deposit
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Semi-variograms and kriging techniques in iron ore reserve categorization: application at Jebel Wenza deposit Oussama Zerzour 1 & Larbi Gadri 1 & Riheb Hadji 2 & Faouzi Mebrouk 1 & Younes Hamed 3 Received: 2 May 2020 / Accepted: 13 August 2020 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2020
Abstract Iron ore is a fundamental raw material for the world steel industry. For the success of mining projects, the average rate of the iron ore content ought to be acceptable to produce steel and cast iron. With irregular useful mineral contents, iron deposits address a problem for Algeria steel industry performance and it makes the operating cost very expensive. In this research, we used the geostatistical interpolation to evaluate the iron ore mixtures in Wenza open cast mine, northeast Algeria. We applied semivariograms and kriging techniques to interpolate the needed values for mineral resource estimation. Then, we have integrated a mathematical approach to calculate and compare the grade of the sites in operation, with the orders grade. The results showed a significant variability of the iron content in the study area. The variogram revealed a nugget effect of 0.16, a range of 95.05 (m), and 17,329 kriged blocks of 5 × 5 × 7.5 m. We have used the output values of the geostatistical model as input data of the analytical model to set an operating mode of mining activities. Our study proposes to install out a homogenizing stock to correct the iron rate in Wenza deposit and to guarantee the quantity and quality required by the customer. Keywords Geostatistics . Homogenization . Analytical . Irregular . Useful mineral
Introduction
Responsible Editor: Murat Karakus * Riheb Hadji [email protected] Oussama Zerzour [email protected] Larbi Gadri [email protected] Faouzi Mebrouk [email protected] Younes Hamed [email protected] 1
Mining Laboratory University LarbiTebessi, Tebessa, Algeria
2
Department of Earth Sciences, Institute of Architecture and Earth Sciences, Setif-1 University, Setif, Algeria
3
Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Sciences of Gafsa, University of Gafsa, Gafsa, Tunisia
Algeria supplies the world markets with a variety of hydrocarbons commodities such as crude petroleum, natural gas, and refined petrochemical products. Algeria’s non-fuel mineral production included modest quantities of phosphates, zinc, and iron ore, etc. Furthermore, the country is an important steel consumer being the ninth-ranked importer of steel (Kerbati et al. 2020). The Algerian iron ore annual production volume will reach two million tons in 2020. This is not enough to meet national needs (Gadri et al. 2015; Zahri et al. 2016; Raïs et al. 2017; Zeqiri et al. 2019). Therefore, it is required to raise the production efficiency and to try to become self-sufficient in this mineral commodity. The Algerian iron ore resources are distributed over six main deposits including those of Wenza and Boukhadra in the far east of the country, with a production of 1.6 million tons/year and hematitic mineraliz
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