GSLIB is the name of a directory containing the geostatistical software developed at Stanford. Generations of graduate students have contributed to

this constantly changing collection of programs, ideas, and utilities. Some of the :nost widely used public-domain geostatistical software [58, 62, 721 and many more in-house programs were initiated from GSLIB. It was decided to open the GSLIB directory to a wide audience, providing the source code to seed new developments, custom-made application tools, and, it is hoped, new theoretical advances <...>

This book is crafted against the backdrop of the commodities super-cycle that we had in the first decade of the 21st Century, and the mining industry having learnt severe lessons. Dr Ian Runge summarized the decade-long experiment with the prioritization of volumes and said, “The economics of mining is at an inflection point. For the last decade or so our focus has been on developing mines and bringing them into production. It is not production on its own that is important, it is how efficiently we can produce.”¹ The message was echoed by Ivan Glasberg, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Glencor at the time of penning this book: “The big guys really screwed up (during the super-cycle) by building too many mines”, and as a result he opined that miners needed to learn about supply and demand fundamentals. “The real trap in the gold industry in the past was chasing volume,” said Tom Palmer, Newmont CEO and, “No one made any real money,” according to Barrick Gold Corporation’s CEO, Mark Bristow. <...>

Geostatistics is a subset of statistics specialized in analysis and interpretation of geographically referenced data (Goovaerts, 1997; Webster and Oliver, 2001; Nielsen and Wendroth, 2003). In other words, geostatistics comprises statistical techniques that are adjusted to spatial data. Typical questions of interest to a geostatistician are:

how does a variable vary in space?

what controls its variation in space?

where to locate samples to describe its spatial variability?

how many samples are needed to represent its spatial variability?

what is a value of a variable at some new location?

what is the uncertainty of the estimate?

Геологоразведочная деятельность призвана обеспечить минерально-сырьевой базой горнодобывающую промышленность.
Геологоразведочные работы осуществляются поэтапно, в определенной последовательности, причем каждый этап имеет свои цели и свою методику достижения этих целей.

In terms of both volume and mass, waste dumps associated with large open pit mines are arguably the largest manmade structures on Earth. Their footprints typically exceed the aerial extent and their heights often rival the depths of the open pits from which the material used to construct them is derived.

Rocks in natural outcrops, in samples knocked off these outcrops and in drill cores, are beautiful and instructive. We can see different minerals, and identify many of them with the aid of a hand lens. We can also see some of the more obvious structures in the rocks. However, cutting a slice (section) through a rock with a diamond-impregnated circular saw and polishing the sawn surface shows us the various minerals alongside each other, rather than piled confusingly all around each other. This reveals the structure even more clearly, as can be seen in the polished facing slabs on many buildings and bench tops.

Of all the sciences, paleontology is probably one of the most narrative. It combines elements of geology, biology, ecology, and many other disciplines to peer back through time into vanished worlds. The pages of the story of Earth are written in rocks and fossils that require careful collection and interpretation, though.

In this course, we review the tools and techniques paleontologists use to breathe life into fossils and recreate ancient landscapes and oceans. We also discover how paleontological investigation can unpack complex events in Earth’s history and how our understanding of these events is continuing to evolve as new fossils and new technologies present themselves <...>

In nature, minerals are usually found in association, forming rocks. Ores are no exception: they are almost always composed of different species, forming intergrowths. The study, description and interpretation of these intergrowths is the objective of textural analysis and is very important for mineralogy, both from a scientific point of view (e.g. mineral genesis) and for a practical approach (e.g. mining exploration and minerallurgy).

Microscopy is a servant of all the sciences, and the microscopic examination of minerals is an important technique which should be mastered by all students of geology early in their careers. Advanced modern textbooks on both optics and mineralogy are available, and our intention is not that this new textbook should replace these but that it should serve as an introductory text or a first stepping-stone to the study of optical mineralogy. The present text has been written with full awareness that it will probably be used as a laboratory handbook, serving as a quick reference to the properties of minerals, but nevertheless care has been taken to present a systematic explanation of the use of the microscope as well as theoretical aspects of optical mineralogy. The book is therefore suitable for the novice either studying as an individual or participating in classwork. <...>