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Data Translation

However, often your inputted data will not be in the right format for a direct input.

There are several programs around which can take drill-hole data and turn it into a block model. Gemcom is one such program. These programs can output this block model to a text file, so that other programs can read it.

An example of such a text file is can be seen here.

This shows the typical format for such a text output file. There are four columns. Each row lists the data for a single block in the block model. The first three numbers shows the location of the block (in (i,j,k) format), and the fourth number is the numerical value of that block.

When you open this file in Excel, it looks like this:

 

 

This is how Excel interprets a text file. Each data point gets distributed to a cell. Before a pit limit can be determined, this data needs to be converted into the format seen previously, where each cell represents a block.

To convert this data into a format which UPL can use for determination of the ultimate pit limit, you need to go to the UPL menu, and select ‘Data Transform’. Checking first in the ‘Transform options…’ menu that ‘I-J-K mode’ has been selected. This transforms the data into the respective rows, columns and sheets, as required.

 The results from the transformation subroutine can be seen here:

 

This transformation sequence works in all three dimensions, transforming all data in the ijk format into the block model, where columns are the x dimension, rows the y, sheets the z, and cells are the blocks. It also resizes the blocks to the given dimensions.

The primary limitation of the transform algorithm is the input data. Excel can only handle 65,536 rows in any one spreadsheet. When a text file in opened, then, Excel cannot open it if it contains more than 65,536 rows. Because each rows represents a block in the block model, this would place the ultimate number of blocks which can be input at any one time to 65,536. 

If the block model contains more than 65,536 blocks, you have two options. You can either reblock the block model (reblocking is when a block model is reduced in the number of blocks that it contains), or run multiple inputs.

The block model can be divided up into groups of z-slices, then each of these groups are imported separately. Once each of the groups has been transformed, it is an easy task to group sheets from multiple outputs into one workbook, though UPL does not currently have this capability. Care needs to be taken however, in keeping the sheets in the correct order.

The data transformation submenu has two primary options, which can be selected from the UPL menu. The options cater for different input data formats. The Data Translation Options menu can be seen below:

 

 

The first option asks you to select between the ‘Economic Value Format’ and the ‘Grade Value Format’ for the Block data. This refers to the fourth column on the input data. A file that uses the grade value format may be converted into the economic value format using this option 

There are two primary ways of assigning block data. One is to output the actual block value. Another is to output the grade value. The grade value is more commonly used, since the grade in the orebody does not change, yet the block value changes constantly. 

To calculate the amount of ore, and the amount of metal in the block, the block dimensions must be known. These block dimensions can be entered in the lower part of the ‘Block Data’ tab. 

To further calculate the block economic value, the economic and geological data for the block needs to be entered. This is done via the ‘Economic Data’ tab in the Translation Options screen:

 

All the necessary data to calculate the economic block value is inputted from the screens shown above. Once this data is in place, running the transformation program will produce an output that has economic block values, instead of the block grade values. It is important to produce an output which has economic block values, since the ultimate pit limit is a calculation based upon the pit that has the highest economic value.

The output from calculation of the economic block value can be seen below:

 

The block values are very different from those seen previously, since they have been converted from a ‘grade block value’ to an ‘economic block value’. Also, the block size is not square, since, as can be seen in the Translation Options menu, the block dimensions are not square. 

The next option on the ‘Block Data’ tab deals with the format of the first three numbers in the data file. Instead of using i-j-k values to specify the location of the block, the model may use numbers based on their relative locations. In this, the location of the block is defined as being some distance away from a given datum. For instance, consider the data file seen here.

Clearly, this will not produce a desired output when UPL uses i-j-k formatting, since blocks that are meant to be next to each other (ie, 60, 75 in the x-direction) will instead end up some 15 blocks apart. In order to produced a correct output, more data needs to be input into the ‘model data’ tab:

 

 

The minimum and maximum for the block model needs to be entered into the sheet. The program then, with the aid of the block size, calculates the total number of blocks in the model, and assigns the data to these blocks.  

An advantage in using the x-y-z model system is that you can specify a region which may be smaller than the block model for which they have data for. In this case, all the data which lies outside of the your specified region will be ignored. 

Using the data inputted into the option menus, the output will be identical to the I-J-K file output, as can be seen below:

 

Once all data has been translated into this format, it is ready for UPL to determine the ultimate pit limit.