In line with the National Mineral Reservation Program (NMRP) of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), training activities were slated last year to enhance the capabilities of technical representatives from MGB-Central Office and Regional Offices working under this program. In this respect, the Economic Geology Section (EGS) of the Lands Geological Survey Division (LGSD) organized a five-day training program on “Advanced Resource Estimation Techniques” which was held at the Hive Hotel and Convention Place, Quezon City from November 25 to 29, 2019. The SURPAC software package was used as the platform for geostatistical estimation in the training module.

 

The training program served as a follow-up course on the recently finished Advanced and Basic Surpac Training last May 27 to June 7. This recent module generally focused on understanding the basic concepts and applications of Geostatistics in estimating different mineral resource types using exploration or actual resource data. Accordingly, experts and Competent Persons (CP) duly recognized by the Geological Society of the Philippines (GSP) were invited to share their expertise on mineral resource estimation.

 

Dr. Rogel Santos, Vice-Chairperson of the CP Accreditation Committee, GSP, started the training by discussing the current Philippine Mineral Reporting Code. He also gave valuable insights on his research works in Macroasia Mining Corporation highlighting the importance of Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) in producing good estimates.

 

Subsequently, Dr. Rogelio Laraya,  former Professorial Lecturer on Geostatistics of the University of Philippines Diliman and Mr. Isaac D. Rivera, Resource Geologist of Apex Mining Company, Inc., gave comprehensive lectures on the fundamentals of Geostatistics and facilitated participatory activities like carrying out geostatistical calculations without solely relying on the use of a software. 

 

On the third day of the training course, Ms. Arlene Morales, Resource Geologist of Marcventures and Part-time Instructor of Adamson University and Mapua University, imparted her knowledge by giving a run-through of estimation techniques and hands-on activities using the SURPAC software. Likewise, Mr. Andrew Gabata, Project Geologist of Macroasia, also gave an in-depth discussion on the applications of some estimation parameters like the estimation variance and its application on generating resource estimates.

 

The workshop was concluded by Mr. Raymundo I. Villones, Chief of the EGS, in behalf of Mr. Antonio N. Apostol, Jr., Officer-in-Charge of the LGSD, emphasizing MGB’s current efforts and achievements with regard to mineral resource estimation and validation. The trainings conducted from 2018 and 2019 aim to continually train and equip the geologists and mining engineers with the proper know-how on providing good and reliable mineral resource estimates and ensuring that the concepts and methodologies are well-understood by MGB technical personnel.