Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

avoided. He also said that the geologists, engineers and people involved
in the offshore surveys, in geostatistics, and in linear programming are all
focused on providing the right mineral resource information for the
decision makers who ultimately have to take the financial decisions within
the organization.
Dr. Corbett described the work of this group as an effort to ease
investment decisions by strengthening the organisation’s technical
knowledge. He explained that the group takes a very holistic view of the
mineral resource cycle, applying a lot of statistics to being able to model
the geological environments and the mineralization characteristics of the
offshore diamond deposits. He said that the group increasingly uses
computer-based simulations of these types of deposits to be able to model
and predict likely outcomes from sampling programmes and to make
people aware of the dependencies and inter-dependencies between
technical factors. He stated that this is the key to successful development
of the offshore mining industry. As part of the process, Dr. Corbett
informed participants that it is important for the group to operate within
internationally acceptable mineral resource classification categories. He
observed that over the last few years with the introduction of a lot more
venture capital, people are using stock markets to raise funds for
exploration. He pointed out that stock markets have found that they
needed to have extremely rigorous criteria that could protect the investor
from unscrupulous activities. These criteria, he also said include the ability
of the developer to mine and deliver the mineral concerned.
Dr. Corbett pointed out that in order to exploit mineral resources,
information on the geology of the deposit, sampling data and geostatistical
information have to be combined in order to be able to proceed from a
situation of fairly scanty information to a point where there is increased
knowledge of the deposit and increased confidence in resource delivery.
He said that in South Africa, this is based on the SAMREC Code
developed by the minerals industry. 6 He said that the SAMREC Code is
modelled on the Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources
6 SAMREC is the South African Mineral Resource Committee. It was established in 1998.
The Committee consists of various stakeholders in the minerals industry in South Africa
such as the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the South African Council for Natural Scientific
Professions (SACNASP), representatives of SAIMM, and the Geological Society of South
Africa. In 2000, under the Auspices of the South African Institute of Mining and
Metallurgy (SAIMM), SAMREC prepared the South African Code for Reporting of Mineral
Resources and Mineral Reserves.
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 605