Mineral resource estimation
![20 points and their Voronoi cells (larger version below).](/Images/godic/202501/15/Euclidean_Voronoi_diagram.svg2129.png")
![](/Images/godic/202501/15/Shepard_interpolation_22130.png")
![Example of one-dimensional data interpolation by Kriging, with confidence intervals. Squares indicate the location of the data. The Kriging interpolation, shown in red, runs along the means of the normally distributed confidence intervals shown in gray. The dashed curve shows a spline that while smooth nevertheless departs significantly from the expected intermediate values given by those means.](/Images/godic/202501/15/Example_of_kriging_interpolation_in_1D2130.png")
Resource estimation is used to determine and define the ore tonnage and grade of a geological deposit, from the developed block model. There are different estimation methods (see below) used for different scenarios dependent upon the ore boundaries, geological deposit geometry, grade variability and the amount of time and money available. A typical resource estimation involves the construction of a geological and resource model with data from various sources. Depending on the nature of the information and whether the data is hard copy or computerized, the principal steps of computer resource estimation are: