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# Material Classes

To define the geology for your scenario you must define the different material classes that exist in the model, or models. Material classes are the parameters that define the ore and waste in the model.

You define the material classes in the Material classes data grid. You can use any number of material classes to differentiate between different grade material in the model.

Note: Later in the scheduling process, you can choose to report for a single material class or any combination of material classes.

When scheduling from block models, an attribute in your block model defines the material class. When scheduling from string models, a description field defines the material class. When scheduling from grid models, the seam sequence file determines the material classes.

The initial material classes should be defined in the models before you define them in the Material classes data grid. If material classes do not exist in the models, first you must complete the fields related to material class on the Model Details pane for the model.

Note: You assign the material classes. GEOVIA MineSched does not calculate material classes for you.

You can change the material class assignment over time through the schedule. If you have used an optimisation product, for example GEOVIA Whittle, to produce a schedule of optimum cutoff grades, you can use these optimum cutoff grade changes when creating your production schedule. You change the material class assignments over time using the Material Class Cutoffs spreadsheet.

There are four mandatory columns in the Material classes data grid, and three columns that are optional. The mandatory columns are Name, Model value, Calculate qualities, and Colour. The options columns are Partial Attribute, SG Attribute, and Comments. The optional columns are hidden in the default view.

### Columns in the Material Classes Data Grid

Column | Description
--- | ---
Name | The name of the material class. Tip: This name should be descriptive and, if you are using multiple material classes, allow you to use wildcards to group similar material classes. For example, if you had four materials classes: three for low, medium, and high grade ore, and one for waste, and named these ore_low, ore_medium, ore_high, and waste, you can use "ore_*" to specify all ore classes.
Model value | The value for the material classes in the model. Note: The value must be an integer or character value.
Calculate qualities | Selected: Qualities are calculated and reported for the material class. Cleared: Qualities are not calculated or reported for the material class. Tip: The processing speed of the schedule is improved when you choose to calculate qualities for only the material classes on which you want to report.
Partial Attribute | In block models, this is the attribute that stores the proportion of the blocks that contains the material class. Note: In partial percentage models, not every material class must be modelled with partials. For example, a model could use partials for three different ore grades, but not use partials for waste. If you choose to Calculate qualities for material classes with partial attributes, separate attributes must be associated with each quality that is being calculated. The names of the quality attributes in the model must be made up of the name of the Attribute in <model>, in the Qualities grid, and the name of the material, in the material class partial attribute name, joined by an underscore. Note: In older versions of Datamine, model attribute names can have a maximum of eight characters. This means that the suffix of the Partial Attribute and the Attribute in <model> can have a maximum of seven characters. Attribute names longer than eight characters are truncated when they are read back into Datamine. If you are using an older version of Datamine, save the attribute names and close the model, then re-open the model in Datamine to make sure the attribute names appear correctly before proceeding. By default the Partial Attribute allows values from zero to one, has a naming convention of <partial>_<material>, and is associated with quality attributes in the model that have the naming convention <quality>_<material>. You can click Settings to use the Partial Attribute Naming Convention form to change the attribute settings. Changing the attribute settings is useful when you are defining a block model that has been created using a GEOVIA GEMS percent model. #### Fields on the Partial Attribute Naming Convention form
Field | Description
--- | ---
Material Class Attributes
Scale | Partial: The default setting. The attribute can contain values between zero and one. Percentage: The attribute can contain values between zero and one hundred.
Naming | partial_material: The default value. In the name of the Partial Attribute, the value for partial is before the underscore and the value for the material is after the underscore. For example, partial_highgrade or p_hg. material_partial: In the name of the Partial Attribute, the value for the material is before the underscore and the value for partial is after the underscore. For example, highgrade_partial or hg_p.
Quality Attributes
Naming | quality_material: In the name of the quality attributes in the model, the name of the Attribute in <model>, from the Qualities data grid, is before the underscore and the material in the Partial Attribute, from the Material classes data grid, is after the underscore. For example, gold_highgrade or au_hg. material_quality: In the name of the quality attributes in the model, the name of material in the Partial Attribute, from the Material classes data grid, is before the underscore and the Attribute in <model>, from the Qualities data grid, is after the underscore. For example, highgrade_gold or hg_au.
SG Attribute | The attribute that stores the specific gravity of the partial material class. If you leave this field blank, the default attribute or value for specific gravity for the material class, as defined in the Model Details pane, is used.
Colour | The colour of the material class in the canvas and charts in the other MineSched tabs.
Comments | Any notes you want to make about the material class.

### See also

- Define Material Classes
- Define Multiple Material Classes in Gridded Seams
- Material Class Cutoffs

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