The importance of using correction coefficients and some mistakes appearing in writing expert reports on industrial and construction minerals

Abstract

On the basis of many years' experience with writing and reviewing expert reports on resources and reserves of industrial and construction minerals, the author points out some mistakes which have been made by the authors of those reports while they were calculating reserves and resources of some of those minerals. Consequently, the reported resources and reserves of some exploration and exploitation areas were not realistic. The miscalculations were due to neglect of some correction coefficients, especially where cross-sections in which the calculations of resources and reserves were made were not perpendicular to beds, seams or batters in open-pits. As a result, the resources and reserves were rather exaggerated, which was misleading for the authors themselves, as well as for the investors. Personal responsibility in these cases is on the side of the authors of the expert reports, while objective responsibility lies with their employing companies and institutes, respectively. This article is aimed to promote the awareness of possible calculation mistakes in order to improve the quality of expert reports on resources and reserves of industrial and construction minerals in the future in such a way that they will be more realistically and responsibly elaborated, regardless of different authors, reviewers and producers of those reports.