Gipronikel Institute LLC, Saint Petersburg, Russia:

O. A. Kravtsova, Supervisor at the Laboratory for Geological Studies of Raw Materials, Candidate of Geology and Mineralogy Sciences, e-mail: kravtsovaoa@nornik.ru
V. I. Maksimov, Chief of Operations Support at the Laboratory for Geological Studies of Raw Materials
A. A. Lebedeva, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory for Geological Studies of Raw Materials

Kola MMC, Zapolyarny, Murmansk Region, Russia:
K. V. Koptev, Principal Geologist

Geological mapping is included in each stage of geological prospecting. How detailed and consistent the obtained data are directly depends on how thoroughly an object has been studied. The main purpose of geological mapping is to identify areas with uniform ore and to give recovery projections. Gipronikel Institute has been engaged in such work for 30 years and has accumulated a great number of successful practices. As an example, this paper describes the results of geological mapping that was done for the Zhdanov deposit of copper-nickel sulphide ores in the Kola Peninsula. This study resulted in identifying geological types of ores (such as raw, refractory and talcose ores), which can be processed following the same process sequence but with different performance. The key differentiation criteria included the concentration of valuable components, the share of coarsely disseminated sulphides in the total amount of sulphides contained in a sample, the concentration of the easily floatable mineral — i.e. talc. Due to high variability in the material composition of striking and dipping ore bodies, the deposit has seen geological mapping conducted continuously for more than 10 years. Over that period, a database was created showing the distribution of different geological types of ore and the variability in the estimated recovery of nickel and copper, which is used for concentrator plant operations planning based on prospecting data.

1. Guidelines on the application of the Mineral Resource Classification. Nickel and cobalt ores. Guidelines of the State Commission on Resources by resource type. Moscow, 2007. 33 p.
2. STO RosGeo 09-002–98. Standard of the Russian Geological Society. Solid minerals and rocks. Geological mapping. Methods. 1998. 40 p.
3. Kozyrev S. M., Komarova M. Z., Kravtsova O. A., Maksimov V. I. et al. Nornickel’s practices of raw material preparation during prospecting, mining and processing. Tsvetnye Metally. 2004. No. 12. pp. 11–14.
4. Kots G. A., Chernopyatov S. F., Shmanenkov I. V. Testing and mapping of mineral deposits. Moscow : Nedra, 1980. 288 p.
5. Lechuti-Tlhalerwa R., Coward S., Field M. Embracing step-changes in geoscientific information for effective implementation of geometallurgy. Journal of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. 2019. Vol. 119, Iss. 4. DOI: 10.17159/2411-9717/588/2019.
6. Ortiz J. M., Cevik S. I., Avalos S., Kracht W. et al. Machine learning and deep learning in predictive geometallurgical modeling. PDAC, Toronto, ON, March 4, 2020.
7. Bashlykova T. V. Ore processing, visibility of ore, mineralogical analysis of samples, maximum recoverability. Ratsionalnoe osvoenie nedr. 2016. No. 5-6. pp. 66–72.
8. Kozlova M. A., Ryabtsev D. A. A modern approach to geological mapping of ore deposits. Gornye nauki i tekhnologii. 2017. No. 1. pp. 23–30.
9. Dominy S. С., O’Connor L. О. Geometallurgy — beyond conception. Proceedings of the 3rd International Geometallurgy Conference. Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. 2016. Vol. 3. pp. 3–10.
10. Dobby G., Bennett C., Kosick G. Advances in SAG circuit design and simulation applied to the mine block model. Proceedings of the International Conference on Autogenous and Semiautogenous Grinding Technology. British Columbia, Vancouver, 2001. Vol. 4. pp. 244–263.
11. Gorbunov G. I., Astafiev Yu. A., Goncharov Yu. V. et al. The coppernickel deposits of Pechenga. Ed. by N. P. Laverov. Moscow : GEOS, 1999. 236 p.
12. Gorbunov G. I., Astafiev Yu. A., Bartenev I. S., Goncharov Yu. V. et al. The structures of the Kola Peninsula copper-nickel ore fields and deposits. Leningrad : Nauka, 1978. 160 p.
13. Spiridonov G. V., Kravtsova O. A. The geological types of ores in the Pechenga ore field. Optimized processing of ore and semi-products in nickel and cobalt industry. Leningrad : Gipronikel, 1985. pp. 10–17.
14. Spiridonov G. V., Kravtsova O. A., Lebedinskaya N. A. Effects of ore grades on the recovery. Studies in the production of nickel and cobalt: Research papers. Gipronikel Institute, 1986. pp. 29–35.