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
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| Name |
The name of the material class.
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| Model value |
The value for the material classes in the model.
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| Calculate qualities |
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| Partial Attribute |
In block models, this is the attribute that stores the proportion of the blocks that contains the material class.
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.
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
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| 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. |
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| 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. | ||||||||||||
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.