In this introductory chapter we describe general problems of spatial environmental data analysis, modeling, validation and visualization. Many of these problems are considered in detail in the following chapters using geostatistical models, machine learning algorithms (MLA) of neural networks and Support Vector Machines, and the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) approach. The term “mapping” in the book is considered not only as an interpolation in two- or threedimensional geographical space, but in a more general sense of estimating the desired dependencies from empirical data.

Changes in the methods of investigation have had a crucial impact on progress in mineralogy. Many important methods have emerged with their own parameters, interpretations, problems, new albeit restricted possibilities and scopes, and with their own instrumentation and measurement tools. Even the aims and contents of the investigations have changed. Two processes can be discerned:

1.  The logical completion of developing and elaborating the methods, i.e. determining all physical principles based on a single, general, multifaceted phenomenon: the interaction of radiation (particles) with matter.

These interactions and hence these methods can be presented schematically by two coordinates. One is energy (or wavelength of radiation) and parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (nuclear, X-ray and electron, UV, visible, IR, microwave, SHF and RF). The other coordinate is represented by the modes of interaction (spectroscopy-absorption, emission, scattering-diffractometry, microscopy). The various intersection points in this system of coordinates have already been determined and elaborated in detail according to theoretical and instrumentational aspects.

It is a privilege to introduce “Advances in Applied Strategic Mine Planning”, a collection of technical papers addressing core aspects of the sustainable, responsible and optimal development and utilization of Earth’s mineral resources. In a world of uncertain markets, mismatches between demand and reserve base growth (supply), emerging technologies, and new technical challenges and solutions, this book aims to support knowledge dissemination and mobilization of new concerns, concepts, methods and technologies.

The Symposium of the International Association for Computer Methods and Advances in Geomechanics (IACMAG) was held at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, during the period 5–7 March 2019. Computer applications of geomechanics have been gaining much popularity from the early days of the International Conference on Numerical Methods in Geomechanics at Vicksburg in 1972, Blacksburg in 1976 and Innsbruck, Austria, in 1988. It was in that very context the IACMAG was established and it has been growing ever since with various stakeholders contributing significantly from different nations across the world. IACMAG aims at fostering multidisciplinary research and ideas pertaining to geomechanics with particular emphasis on integrating both the practical and the fundamental aspects. The field of geomechanics has evolved with time, and in this regard, IACMAG takes into account the need for judicious simplification of fundamental aspects of geomechanics with a proper amalgamation of theory and experimentation in order that they find their use in practical problems and challenges faced in the industry today. <...>