Estimation and mapping of mine reserve using geostatical methods

Due to the economic growth and population growth in Turkey, the energy demand is increasing day by day, and meeting the increasing domestic energy demand is of great economic importance. Turkey's strategy to increase domestic energy production includes plans to develop renewable resources, nuclear energy and lignite mining. In this thesis, 252 drilling points opened by the General Directorate of Mineral Research and Exploration in the Ömerler locality of Tunçbilek town of Tavşanlı district of Kütahya province between the years of 1967 and 2012 are used. It is aimed to determine the most suitable geostatistical method for the reserve estimation of the mine in the region by using these data scattered over an area of approximately 544.5 ha. For this purpose, Ordinary, Simple, and Universal Kriging methods were used. Theoretical variogram models used in Kriging methods were obtained by using 11 variogram models. The data are considered isotropic, and results are obtained with and without the trend effect. Both skewed data and data approximated to normal distribution by logarithmic transformation are used in applications. How the above-mentioned factors affect the geostatistical estimation results was examined with the statistical data of the application results obtained. As a result of the applications, it was determined that the Ordinary Kriging method, in which the trend effect was removed, data with skewed distribution was used and the Halo Effect variogram model was applied, was the method that gave the best results for both the lower and upper surface. In the reserve estimation made according to the determined method, it has been estimated that there are approximately 44,097,723 m3 lignite reserves in the study area. Keywords: Interpolation, Geostatistics, Tenor, Reserve, Kriging,, Variogra, Lignite