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POLLARD, D., PITARD, F. and MINNITT, R. Misconceptions, rumour, and hearsay about sampling. Fourth World Conference on Sampling & Blending, The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 2009.

Misconceptions, rumour, and hearsay about sampling


D. POLLARD*, F. PITARD and R. MINNITT
Francis

*Salamander Consulting Pty Ltd, Australia Pitard Sampling Consultants, USA University of the Witwatersrand, RSA

The minerals industry regards sampling as an important part of its operations, but often does not recognize the differences between good and bad sampling practice. The reasons are many: poor understanding of sampling theory and how it should be applied, a corporate cost saving culture especially concerning technical issues which are not well understood by executive management and boards, and a failure in the education of industry professionals to develop an understanding of the fundamentals and economic importance of good sampling practice. The authors have experience in industry, education, training and professional development, at undergraduate, postgraduate and professional development levels, and have been working to improve the understanding of students and practising professionals in the industry for many years. The target groups are practising and future geologists, mining and metallurgical engineers, laboratory managers, quality control professionals, middle and executive managers, and accounting and financial managers. Operators, technicians and supervisors have formed another target group. The results of these educational efforts have been rewarding. The paper will discuss the strategies used for the different target groups, some evidence of good and bad practices discovered in the industry, and feedback from the participants. Recommendations for education programmes are made based on the experiences. While the paper is based on our experiences in the minerals industry, the context is applicable to other industries.

Introduction
This paper is not the outcome of a research project; it does not present a set of data developed from surveys and experiments; rather it is an anecdotal account of the experiences of the authors over many years. We present it in the hope that it will provide some insights into the reasons why industry in general and the minerals industry in particular do not take correct sampling as seriously as they should. It describes some attempts by the authors to provide education and training opportunities to key sectors in the minerals industry The experience of the authors is relevant to the paper: Francis Pitard is an international sampling consultant and author of books and papers about sampling, including Pierre Gys Sampling Theory and Sampling Practice1. He consults and presents short courses on sampling in a number of countries including USA, Canada, Australia, Chile and South Africa. Most of these courses are presented in house to companies. Dick Minnitt is JCI Professor of Mining Resources and Reserves in the department of Mining Engineering at the University of The Witwatersrand. His degrees are in geology and chemistry, and mineral economics. He has worked as a geologist, mine geologist and academic. He is an active consultant and has published over 40 papers in the past 10 years, many of which have sampling as a minor or major focus. He is in the process of publishing a textbook on sampling which should help teachers and students to better understand the topic. David Pollard is a metallurgist, with experience in the metallurgical and coal industries before becoming an educator. He taught metallurgy for twenty years in two

Australian universities, and then for a decade he was responsible for the Continuing Education Department of the Australian Mineral Foundation. In this role he worked with minerals industry managers to develop and deliver a structured programme of short courses, seminars and field courses, delivered by international experts, for industry professionals ranging from recent graduates to technical mangers. He represents Francis Pitard in Australasia and has worked with Pitard for about 20 years.

Sampling in the minerals industry


Sampling in the minerals industry is often performed badly. The reasons are diverse: the sampling equipment is not properly designed to provide representative samples or it is not situated at the optimum location, the equipment is not properly maintained, the operators and maintenance personnel are not correctly trained in its use, the professional staff do not have a sufficient understanding of sampling theory and application, and management regards sampling as an expendable budget item in both plant design and operations. As long as tonnes and grade meet production targets, sampling is too often low on the priority list. Furthermore, there is no communication between the sampling expert, the manufacturers of sampling equipment and the engineering contractor during the critically important plant design phase. Communication always comes too late, after the operation is commissioned. What is too often not appreciated is that good sampling and application of the information can deliver better grade control, optimum plant design, improved process control, improved concentrate grade and reduced losses to tailings, lower costs and improved profit.

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Many companies take huge numbers of samples for no good purpose. Two reasons are suggested for this: The sampling protocols were established by technically competent persons at some point in the history of the operation, but those staff have moved on and are no longer custodians of the results and no one has reviewed the current suitability of the procedures, or The installed sampling facilities and protocols do not honour the principles of the theory of sampling. The sampling continues because there is no one who has sufficient insight into the problem, or who is willing to seek outside expertise. Executive management and company boards are commonly dominated by nontechnical accountants, economists and lawyers. The critical stages of resource estimation and metallurgical test work are often seen as non-critical and expensive steps in the process, and subject to cost cutting. The metallurgical design world has many stories of cost cutting by restricting drilling programmes, curtailing metallurgical test work and removing sampling stations from process plant designs to save costs, and installing cheap non-probabilistic sampling systems. These actions are invariably followed by difficulties in commissioning, long ramp-up times to reach nameplate capacity, plant redesigns and retrofitting, and in extreme cases abandonment of the project. Documentation of these cases is rarely available, the mining company and the engineering company often end up in court, and the metallurgists who could see it all coming are usually ignored again when the next project comes along. It is critically important for metallurgical processing that the mineralogical characteristics of the orebody are understood, i.e. what minerals are present, how they are associated, and how they will behave or interact during processing to affect concentrate grade and recovery. Many mineral processing plants have been designed and built only to discover that the ore is more difficult to grind than predicted, or the plant cannot cope with impurities which interfere with the process, or cannot recover or remove elements which are in refractory associations. The lessons learnt from these mistakes cannot be applied if the sampling and test work used as the basis for the design of the next plant is deficient. At the end of the sequence of designing, building and operating a new metallurgical plant, if a metallurgist is asked what would you do differently? the answer will include some or all of sample more, understand the mineralogy better, do more testwork. Brooks2 describes a range of errors, from a variety of projects, in drilling and geological modelling, sampling during processing, and laboratory analysis, all attributable to sampling errors. The examples quoted variously led to gross misrepresentation of reserves. The authors have experience to demonstrate that the key to appreciation of the benefits of good sampling is education and training of operators, professional staff and (especially) management.

geoscientists. Exploration geologists and geochemists take samples for analysis and evaluation, and use various exotic instruments in the field to provide mineral analysis, as well as sampling for laboratory analyses. Many of the samples gathered are best described as grab samples, and in practice there is a strong likelihood that selection will occur to take the best bits for analysis. In 1924 the prospectus for the Mount Isa South Company referred to the 60% lead that had been gouged in a lease adjacent to the Mount Isa South lease. Blainey3 (1960) comments It would have been ... interesting, if not wise, to note that the 60% was hand picked. Be aware of similar problems today. It should be noted that most geological samples are fit for purpose in that they are collected specifically as hand specimens of rock types, to be made into thin sections or polished sections for petrological and microscopic examination. In most cases, and depending on the purpose of the exercise, geological hand specimens for thin section examination are collected from rock outcrops where mineral assemblages are least weathered and best represented. Geologists may receive some training about sampling with an exploration focus, in geochemistry subjects. Most of the geologists contacted have said that they received no lectures on sampling or sampling theory, but were given some guidance and rules of thumb during field work. Metallurgy courses The depth of understanding about sampling in metallurgy courses is dependent on the course and the staff teaching it. Often the subject of sampling is treated in the mineral processing laboratory, where rules of thumb are used to determine sample size and simple methods of sample splitting are used, often without an understanding of their limitations (riffles, rubber mats). Metallurgy is unusual in having feed materials that are heterogeneous, as feed may consist of discrete particles comprising single or multiple minerals, and also particles containing solid solutions of varying composition. In most other processing of materials (petroleum, pharmaceutical, food, etc.) the feed is more uniform and closer to homogeneous. It is normal for metallurgical feed to vary widely in composition and properties, even from closely associated parts of the same mine. An understanding of the mineralogy of an orebody is vital to designing an efficient processing circuit, and operating it. Some metallurgy courses treat mineralogy as an important topic. In some courses mineralogy is taught to metallurgy students by the geology staff, which can bring some cross-disciplinary appreciation to the subject. If, however, the course does not provide a basic understanding of sampling theory and how it should be applied, graduates will continue to work in ignorance. Metallurgical engineers are likely to study some statistics in their undergraduate syllabus, and thus have a better chance of appreciation of the issues involved in sampling, than those taking science degrees in geoscience or metallurgy. Metallurgical process plants are often run by chemical, process or other engineers. Sampling theory is not a feature of their education, and although their courses will have included some statistics they are unlikely to have had any exposure to sampling heterogeneous materials. Metallurgy courses do not often include mineral economics, although some have begun to do so. The relatively new (or reinvented) field of geometallurgy has great potential to address problems in orebody characterization, grade control, processing plant operation, economics and communication. Geometallurgy may address the requirement for correct sampling in a more palatable way to management.

Challenges at university
The depth and seriousness of teaching sampling theory and application in university geology, mining and metallurgy departments is often very dependent on the particular interests and knowledge of the lecturers in the subjects where sampling is relevant. Ideally the basic theory of sampling should be covered in lectures, and application should be integrated into laboratory work. The major disciplines for the minerals industry are considered. Geology courses Sampling is important for geologists, geochemists and other

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Mining courses Mining engineers very often have less understanding of the theory of sampling than geologists and metallurgists. This can be a problem as mining engineers are more likely to end up as mine managers, site managers and senior managers and become responsible for site-wide or company-wide operations, including mine geology and the process plant operations. Mining engineers are more likely to receive an introduction to sampling if their university experience includes a mineral processing subject with laboratory sessions. Mining engineering courses do contain introductions to mineral economics and mine management, subjects notably missing from most geoscience and metallurgy courses. As mining engineers are more likely to move into site and corporate management than geoscientists and metallurgists, a greater appreciation of the importance of correct sampling by mining engineers would benefit the investment and operational decisions of the company. MBA courses and management in the minerals industry Good sampling practices are critically important for the economics and management of mining operations. MBA graduates in the minerals industry need to appreciate the benefits of good sampling at each stage of the supply chain so that sampling is not seen as an optional item on the budget.

schedule. However, even when such practices have been introduced, the paucity of basic knowledge about the theory of sampling means that the benefits of the technology can be lost or diluted. Mining engineers are usually not very interested in sampling and its problems; they want tonnes. The mine geologist is in the front line for grade control, and if the mill is to know what ore it will be treating tomorrow or next month, it is the mine geologist who can tell them. Most mine geologists start as exploration geologists, and there are few courses in mine geology. The requirements of sampling for grade control are learnt on the job rather than studied. Curtin University, through the WA School of Mines in Kalgoorlie, has the only geology school in Australia which offers a course in mine geology. In South Africa a degree in Mining Geology was offered from the early 1960s, but it became dormant in the mid-1990s due to low student enrolments. Process plant design Bulk sampling for testwork is commonly organized by geologists. There are many examples where limited test work has been performed on a bulk sample which was not representative of the orebody, and where adequate mineralogical characterization was not carried out. The process plant design engineers are presented with totally inadequate data about the ore to be treated, and the plants when built will have problems during commissioning and difficulty in reaching nameplate capacity. Such cases are very often the subject of court action and details of the problems are not made public. The shareholders lose value, the operators of the plant lose sleep, the customers lose supply, the engineers lose credibility, and the geologists continue blithely on, unaware that the sampling practices they prescribed were the primary cause of the problem. We have talked with many metallurgical engineers over the years, and all too often the metallurgists have to take what they get from the geologists. Drill samples are sent to a laboratory for analysis and the analyses specified by the geologists are performed without any metallurgical input to investigate elements or minerals which might affect processing. Likewise, bulk samples can be tested with no metallurgical input to the decision making. Geometallurgy An increasing number of companies address the issues of sampling to delineate an orebody, and bulk sampling to provide basic data for process plant design, more seriously. Geometallurgy has emerged as the new description of the process of studying the mineralogy of the orebody and integrating the mine plan and the processing with the ore characteristics. It is used by a small but increasing number of both mining and engineering companies, and has been introduced as a field of study at the Colorado School of Mines. An AMIRA 7 collaborative research project in Australia has nodes at the University of Tasmania and the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre. Consultant groups provide specialist statistical and geostatistical services to the industry which include resource estimation, orebody modelling, grade control, auditing and review. Companies which are not large enough to have their own expertise in house can receive quality professional services from such consultants. Codes for reporting mineral resources and ore reserves have been implemented in many countries and have done much to improve the standard of reporting. However, when it comes to the detail of adequate sampling for mine design, process plant design and plant operation and environmental monitoring, there is room for improvement.

Challenges in the industry


Exploration Most geologists who enter the minerals industry have graduated from a course which is designed to produce exploration geologists. The curricula of most of these courses omit any drill core logging and any mineral economics including financial evaluation. Reference to sampling is usually a practical procedural guide, with little or no reference to the theory. Young geologists usually receive some practical guidance in sampling once they start work in the field, along with mapping, survival skills and many other things. They are given some guidelines and rules of thumb from more experienced geologists who have themselves received similar advice when they began field work. If they are fortunate, they will be sent to a short course on sampling. A very small number read books on sampling and develop their understanding of the subject. The Field Geologists Manual 4 and the companion volume Field Guide for Geoscientists and Technicians5 contain excellent chapters on sampling. These and similar references are readily available to most exploration geologists. When a deposit is identified as worthy of further investigation and a drilling programme is initiated, the business of obtaining samples from reverse circulation drill cuttings appears fairly simple. It is only recently that some sampling devices attached to drills have been developed to avoid major sampling errors. Problems with sampling are increased where poor sampling equipment is combined with geologists and technicians who do not have good training in sampling. Mining The mine geologist obtains samples for grade control from rock faces and blast hole drilling, and in some cases from RC drilling. Blast hole sampling is notoriously unreliable, and Pitard has recommended reverse circulation drilling should be used to obtain samples for grade control. Some companies have adopted this, in spite of the greater expense and the need to plan it to avoid disruption to the mining

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Pathways to understanding
University To present correct information about sampling to undergraduate and postgraduate students, faculty staff must appreciate the importance of the topic, and have the knowledge and resources to include it in the curriculum. There is a need for a correct but compressed approach to teach sampling in universities. A number of textbooks have been written, but none has gained widespread acceptance to date. In South Africa the teaching of mine sampling theory at a tertiary level in South Africa is done through the technical colleges, the Chamber of Mines, and the mining companies themselves, as part of a national qualification issued by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), known as the Mine Surveyors Certificate of Competency8. Sampling in this case refers specifically to the extraction and collection of so-called channel samples along the reef face in a mining stope9. Although much has been written about the method and means of collecting channel samples, the source book for most government related qualifications on sampling, is a volume edited by Clare Storrar10 on mine valuation. Sampling therefore is an extremely important subject, taught at many levels in different institutions in the South African mining industry. However, it tends to have a rather narrow focus on face sampling of gold bearing reefs11. At the undergraduate level there is little or no teaching of the theory of sampling in most South African universities. Where it is taught, the subject is usually treated as an addon and has to be accommodated in a curriculum that is already full. It is usually pushed in as an introductory section alongside the subject of technical evaluation of mineral deposits. Students faced with a new topic such as the Theory of Sampling and its Applications in the Mineral Industry, but with no additional time to digest the material, are not overly inspired by the topic. The absence of this highly important subject from most university curricula is due in part to the historical development and age of the mining industry, the argument being that we have done well without it up to now, why bother us with an approach that is likely to cost time and money. Other reasons relate to a lack of appreciation of this relatively new subject matter that was formalized by Pierre Gy in the 1940s and 1950s, but has only recently been popularized in South Africa by consultants and sampling experts such as Pitard, Francois Bongarcon and several others. The first accredited postgraduate course in the theory of sampling was presented through the Geostatistical Association of South Africa (GASA) at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1998 by Dominique FrancoisBongarcon, although Geoff Lyman had presented a short course without any accreditation to the South African Statistical Association in 1997. More recently both Francis Pitard and Dominique Francois-Bongarcon have presented short courses in sampling theory and methods through GASA at the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. Industry education and training Short courses David Pollard was for 11 years the Education Manager with the Australian Mineral Foundation (AMF) an industry body which provided information services and professional development programs (19722001) to the minerals and petroleum industries. Professional development was offered via short courses, workshops, seminars and conferences, drawing on the best available international expertise. For

example, Pierre Gy presented some courses for AMF in the 1970s, while Francis Pitard presented courses from 1990 until AMF closed in 2002. During the last decade of AMF, the syllabus was structured to provide courses at levels appropriate to the experience of attendees. Short courses were designed for recent graduates, experienced professionals, and technical managers. Cross-disciplinary courses both within the industry (e.g. geophysics for geologists) and for the broader community (e.g. Geology for Bankers, Brokers and Analysts) formed an important part of AMFs role. Sampling courses by Francis Pitard were introduced in 1990, and it quickly became clear that courses tailored to target groups in the industry were successful. Many courses were presented inhouse for companies and other organizations (universities, government geological surveys etc), and these were tailored for the interests and activities of the participants. Public courses such as Sampling for Exploration, Sampling for Iron Ore, Sampling for Process Control, etc. were very popular, while courses such as Sampling for Reconciliation between Mine and Mill brought geologists and metallurgists together to resolve traditional disputes through common understanding. These courses were illustrated with case studies relevant to each group of attendees. The level of presentation of sampling short courses was extended both upward and downward. Training courses for operators, samplers and others (including maintenance personnel) were found to be successful in improving the adherence to sampling protocols in many companies. The success of these is attributed to several factors: It is unusual for an international consultant to present a training course to operators and technicians and they felt important; the course reinforced their previous training but from a different perspective, and the presenter (Francis Pitard) explained the logic and rationale of correct sampling in a way that they understood. A key factor in the success of these operator courses is the length and content of the course. Too much detail and attention wanders. Relevance to their particular workplace is important, and Pitard is able to use specific examples from the operation as a result of his consulting experience and a site inspection prior to the course. A course of 23 hours is optimum; a full day is too much for these groups. Moving up the company structure, managers who have an understanding of the importance of good sampling are able to provide valuable support and make better decisions. A seminar for managers titled Correct Sampling Improves Profit emphasizes the cost of poor sampling, and the target group should extend to executive management, including finance and marketing management. The first managers seminar we ran was for a company operating a mine in a remote area of Australia. The brief was to present a short course for geologists and engineers on site, but when a charter plane of head office management arrived for a visit, an impromptu seminar was arranged for them. The feedback from the site operations managers encouraged us to develop the concept; they said, We found it much easier to gain capital expenditure approval to upgrade our sampling systems after that seminar. From Francis Pitards experience, some mining companies in Mexico and Chile prefer to have two two-day courses back to back so they can expose more people to the necessary knowledge and reach a critical mass so everybody speaks the same language. Some key people actually attend both courses. A large mine in South Australia adopts the same approach for training operators about sampling.

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Francis Pitard and David Pollard continue to work together to develop and present courses in Australia and neighbouring countries. Our experience is that two-day short courses are generally preferred by companies because they minimize the absence from the workplace of the professional staff, which is important as there are generally no staff to cover absences. Some companies book three-day in-house courses, as this allows time to examine and discuss company data and company practices, as well as more time for working through case studies. In-house sampling courses are also offered by other sampling consultants, some of whom are present at this conference. Public courses organized by Pitard and Pollard are mostly presented in association with conferences of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). Companies support the idea of a quality course adding value to a conference, as it optimizes the experience of staff during a single trip away from the site. In the USA we are aware of only one regular public sampling course for the minerals industry, which Francis Pitard presents through the Colorado School of Mines SPACE (Special Programs and Continuing Education) programme12. Conferences The value of conferences is obvious to all present at this and other sampling conferences. Conferences achieve two major objectives for delegates, information transfer and networking. Discussions with other delegates, authors and exhibitors provide very valuable information and insights into problems and decisions, and knowledge of where to find expertise. Interactive workshops Drawing on his AMF experience, David Pollard developed a format for advanced level interactive workshops which provide opportunity for peer to peer discussion. Three such workshops have been convened on sampling topics: Critical Issues in Sampling (2004), Critical Issues in Sampling Coal (2005) and Sampling Errors and Creative Accounting Sampling in Difficult Situations (2008). These have been run in conjunction with sampling and metallurgical conferences of the AusIMM. The format appears simple the audience is assumed to be familiar with the subject and the issues under examination, the topics to be discussed are clearly defined, and 1012 speakers present for 10 minutes each on a specific aspect of the topic. The rest of the workshop is open discussion. The development phase to define the issues, involving discussions with many people in the industry, is fundamental but time consuming. The role of workshop Chair is critical, the selection of speakers is vital, and enthusiastic involvement of the audience is necessary for the workshop to succeed. So far these workshops have met with critical acclaim, but the six or more months of planning that precedes them is fraught with uncertainty. Consulting There are many sampling consultants who work with companies in the minerals (and other) industries. Few companies seek expert advice from independent experts at the process design stage, and when problems become apparent the mine plan has been determined and the processing plant has been designed and built. At that stage it is difficult to gain approval to rebuild or retrofit expensive sampling systems. The Theory of Sampling (TOS) teaches fundamental differences between structural problems (causes) and circumstantial problems (effects). Francis Pitard did some

auditing work recently in a major mining operation in North America where 17 structural problems were found and none of them was taken seriously, while many subsequent circumstantial problems were the object of daily meetings, research programmes costing millions of dollars and finger pointing. Solutions to structural problems were dismissed as non-practical and too much capital cost. Some of the companies which use consultants to provide advice on design and auditing also have training and professional development programmes to ensure that operators and staff appreciate the importance of correct sampling. Our experience is that this philosophy is usually driven by one person in the company, and that person is more likely to be a geologist than an engineer. Very often when that person moves on, the company abandons its commitment to ongoing education and consulting in the area of sampling. This change is not observed in other areas where consultants are used and education is important, such as occupational health and safety, geotechnical engineering, ventilation, IT systems, etc. The reason may be that these other areas are the subject of regulatory requirements or corporate policy, and are obviously critical to production, safety and management of the operation. Good sampling is too often ignored by management and not seen as a particularly high priority until commissioning of new plant is compromised, or recovery and tonnage fall, or in the extreme case, a project is abandoned because technical or financial decisions have been based on poor sampling.

Case study: planning a major expansion13,14,15


The Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium deposit, 500 km north of Adelaide in South Australia, is the largest uranium resource in the world, the fourth largest copper resource and the fourth largest gold resource in the world. The orebody measures 6 km 3 km 800 m, and is still open laterally and at depth. It has been mined since 1988, and was acquired by BHP Billiton in 2005. The orebody is not only very large, the geology and mineralogy is complex. From very early days, WMC (the original owners) employed a small highly skilled mineralogical team to help understand the complex orebody. They contracted consulting plus in-house short courses on sampling for geologists, metallurgists and laboratory staff from Francis Pitard. They also had shorter and more practical courses for operators, samplers and other technical staff. A relatively high turnover of staff and operators meant that these courses were repeated at regular intervals. At technical management level, a one-day course was developed and a wide cross-section of managers and senior professional staff has participated. The result was a workforce and technical management team which had a good understanding of correct sampling practice. In 2005 a prefeasibility study was commenced by BHP Billiton, the new owners, to expand the mine from 10 mtpa to possibly 40 mtpa. This is now complete, and involved drilling 1 348 holes, totalling 1 016 549 metres. A geometallurgical team was established to oversee the programme of drill core analysis, ore characterization, mineralogical analysis and metallurgical test work. The drilling programme was all diamond drilling, and employed more than 30 drill rigs on site. Core processing was performed at site by a core processing team of 40, who were capable and efficient at the very repetitive work, and all trained personally by the principal geometallurgist. Heterogeneity tests were performed at site. 15 m lengths of core were subjected to staged crushing, rotary splitting at sizes determined by the heterogeneity, and screened into size fractions for further examination. Mineralogical analysis was performed on selected core from about 1 000 holes.

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1.5 million samples were routinely analysed for 27 elements as well as density and magnetic susceptibility. Metallurgical testwork comprised comminution, flotation and leaching tests, with assays and mineralogical analysis on all products. Recovery models (1 000 samples), predictive mineralogy models (based on 10 000 samples) and grade models were combined to give a geometallurgy enabled resource model. Thirty-six specific holes, twinned to selected previous holes, were drilled to provide material for metallurgical testwork. The metallurgical test work was carried out at Amdels laboratories in Adelaide, which employed 200 people, with some work by several other laboratories in Australia. Amdel ran an in-house sampling course for their staff during the work. The geometallurgy enabled resource model resulting from this work comprises about 8 million 30 30 15 m blocks, and will allow precise development of both the mine plan and the processing plant design. This is the most exhaustive and complete prefeasibility study ever undertaken in Australia and possibly the world. Detailed drilling, mineralogy and metallurgical test work is normally carried out on other large deposits; however, the scale of the Olympic Dam prefeasibility campaign makes it a landmark achievement in understanding an orebody in order to plan a mine and design a processing plant for a 100-year mine life. The accuracy and thus the value of the whole project was dependent on the highest confidence in the sampling regime, and the skill and experience of the geometallurgical team to manage the process, train the operators, and interpret the results.

Conclusion
Sampling must become a more important topic in university courses for people entering the minerals industry in order that companies can make better technical and economic decisions about orebodies and their development, mining and processing. To achieve this it is necessary to improve the understanding of university staff about the relevance and importance of good sampling practice. Misconception, rumour and hearsay about sampling can be overcome in the minerals industry by training and education about sampling for professional staff, management and operators, leading to improved decision making and better operations, with reduced losses and increased profits.

2. BROOKS, C.C. Sampling and Analysis Without Fear or Favour, PACRIM 2004 Conference, Adelaide, September 2004, The AusIMM, Melbourne, 2004, pp. 465472. 3. BLAINEY, G. Mines in the SpinifexThe Story of Mt Isa, Angus and Robertson, 1960, p. 97. 4. BERKMAN, D.A. Monograph 9Field Geologists Manual, 4th Revised Edition, The AusIMM, Melbourne, 2001. 5. RYAN, R. Field Guide for Geoscientists and Technicians The AusIMM, Melbourne, 2007. 6. PITARD, F.F. Blast Hole Sampling for Grade Control The Many Problems and Solutions, Sampling 2008 Conference, Perth, May 2008, The AusIMM, Melbourne, 2008, pp. 1521. 7. http://www.amira.com.au/WEB/site.asp?section= projects&page=projectdetails&ProjectLink=2679&So urce_ID=1 Accessed 19 May 2009. 8. DEPARTMENT OF MINERALS AND ENERGY, 2009. Mine Surveyors Certificate of Competency Examination, Overview. http://www.dme.gov.za/mhs/ surveying. stm. Accessed on 12 May 2009. 9. CHAMBER OF MINES SOUTH AFRICA, Basic Sampling. GFBLA/MRM-EVA-BASAMP The Gold Fields Academy. Gold Fields Training Services. 2009, 118 pp. 10. STORRAR, C.D. South African Mine Valuation. Chamber of Mines of South Africa, Johannesburg. 1987. 470 pp. 11. ANDERSON, J. C. Elementary Sampling, Chamber of Mines Mineral Resource Management. GFA/Min/ Ser/M008. The Gold Fields Academy. Gold Fields Training Services and Gold Fields Trust. 2000, 95 pp. 12. http://outreach.mines.edu/cont_ed/pitard1.html Accessed 19 May 2009. 13. YEELES, R. 30th ATSE Symposium, Resources Boom: Opportunities and Consequences, Perth, 19 November 2007. 14. EHRIG, K. Technical Presentation to the AusIMM Adelaide Branch, 16 April 2009 (unpublished). 15. BHP Billiton Olympic Dam Expansion Draft EIS Report, 1 May 2009. http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bb/ odxEis/downloads/draftEisDocuments.jsp Accessed on 17 May 2009.

References
1. PITARD, F.F. Pierre Gy's Sampling Theory and Sampling Practice, 2nd Edition, CRC Press, Florida, 1993.

David Pollard
Director, Salamander Consulting (Pty) Ltd Several years with BHP steelworks after graduation, 20 years lecturing metallurgy at the University of Melbourne and University of South Australia, 11 years Education Manager, Australian Mineral Foundation developing and managing professional development short courses and conferences for the minerals and petroleum industries (about 50 short courses and several conference per year in Australia and other countries). 2001 present: consulting via Salamander Consulting in professional development, developing and convening conferences. Chair of the AusIMM Metallurgical Society, member of the AusIMM Education Committee for many years.

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