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Quantitative textural assessment for sample selection guided by drill core hyperspectral imagery
Citation
Merrill Cifuentes, J and Escolme, AJ and Cracknell, MJ, Quantitative textural assessment for sample selection guided by drill core hyperspectral imagery, SEG 2019 Conference, 7-10 October 2019, Santiago, Chile, pp. 1-2. (2019) [Conference Extract]
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Official URL: https://www.segweb.org/SEG/Events/SEG_Conference_A...
Abstract
Introduction
Mining operation success is reliant on making adequate decisions throughout the mining value chain, from
mineral exploration to metal refinement and waste treatment. Current technological advances (Schodlok et al.,
2016) facilitate an increasingly data-driven decision-making process (Suazo, Kracht, and Alruiz, 2010),
potentially improving productivity and environmental outcomes (Cracknell et al., 2018; Merrill et al., 2017).
Despite the extensive rock property data collected as part of a typical mining operation, metallurgical and
environmental test data is relatively scarce. This is largely due to the high costs associated with sample
collection, preparation, transportation, and laboratory testing. Moreover, metallurgical sample selection protocols
are often selected based on grade and spatial distribution, resulting in units that are critical for generating
informative and reliable metallurgical and environmental models being underrepresented or completely missed
(Parbhakar-Fox and Lottermoser, 2015).
In this study we propose a method for quantitatively assessing textural differences derived from hyperspectral
drill core mineral maps. Statistical analyses of mineral maps was used to define discrete spatial patterns, which
may have implications for mineral processing (Lamberg et al., 2013).
Methodology
Mineral co-occurrence probability fields
Based on the grey level co-occurrence matrix (Eichkitz, Amtmann, and Schreilechner, 2013) algorithm, a feature
extraction method was developed to derive mineral co-occurrence probability fields (MCOPF), which computes
the angle-distance dependent probability that a pixel is one of the target minerals with respect to a reference
pixel in a given mineral map (Fig. 1). MCOPF are calculated for every pair of minerals, accounting for not only
textural relations within minerals themselves but also with other minerals.
The input parameters for the calculation of the MCOPF are as follows:
1. Maximum distance: corresponds to the farthest pixel pairs considered, e.g., the drill core diameter
2. Radial step: the number of pixels between the reference pixel and its pair on each step until reaching the
maximum distance
3. Angular step: increment of the angle on each step, which starts from 0 until reaching π radians (180°)
Processing time increases with decreasing radial and angular step or increasing maximum distance, resulting in
higher resolution MCOPF.
Minimum rotational difference
The quantitative textural difference between two sections of drill core was calculated using a developed method
minimum rotational difference (MRD; Fig. 2). This method proceeds by finding the minimum value obtained for
the sum of the absolute difference between the MCOPF of two sections, while rotating one with respect to the
other from 0 to π radians, that way the quantitative difference measurement becomes independent from the
orientation of both: the drill hole perforation and the rock structures. This allows for the result to exclusively
represent textural differences, separate from other spatial phenomena.
Results
Hyperspectral imagery of 700 m of drill core was sectioned into 30-cm pieces, each representing a sample
candidate and MCOPF were calculated. The minimum rotational difference was derived for all samplecandidates, allowing to distinguish individual units.
The textural difference matrix in Figure 2 combines 100 sections (100 x 100) of drill core. Samples that are
unique with respect to the common textures observed are represented with high values, whereas more common
textures are displayed with low values. This visualisation provides geological information that focuses attention
on drill core sections with unique properties.
Discussion and Conclusions
The proposed methodology successfully establishes a quantitative textural comparison among drill core sample
candidates, enabling the future development of automated sampling protocols. Metallurgical and environmental
knowledge may be incorporated through phenomenological understanding of the effect of specific minerals and
textural patterns into downstream processes, allowing to correlate test data with textural and compositional data
from hyperspectral or other imaging characterization techniques. We hope this sampling protocol improves data
representation and relevance across the entire mining value chain from feasibility studies and plant design,
through process control and optimization, to mine closure and waste management.
Item Details
Item Type: | Conference Extract |
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Keywords: | texture, geometallurgy, hyperspectral imagery, co-occurrence probability fields |
Research Division: | Information and Computing Sciences |
Research Group: | Computer vision and multimedia computation |
Research Field: | Image processing |
Objective Division: | Mineral Resources (Excl. Energy Resources) |
Objective Group: | Primary mining and extraction of minerals |
Objective Field: | Mining and extraction of copper ores |
UTAS Author: | Merrill Cifuentes, J (Mr Javier Merrill Cifuentes) |
UTAS Author: | Escolme, AJ (Dr Angela Escolme) |
UTAS Author: | Cracknell, MJ (Dr Matthew Cracknell) |
ID Code: | 137324 |
Year Published: | 2019 |
Deposited By: | Earth Sciences |
Deposited On: | 2020-02-10 |
Last Modified: | 2020-03-06 |
Downloads: | 2 View Download Statistics |
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