The problem
Mining software is designed for mines: dense drilling, block models, licensed seats and a trained operator. An early-stage project with a dozen holes needs something else. It needs to see its data in three dimensions, agree on an interpretation, and show it to people who will never install modelling software.
The risk at this stage is not too little modelling. It is a model that looks more certain than the data behind it.
What you send
Drillhole tables, surface mapping, geophysical sections or inversions, and a terrain model if you have one (public elevation data is used otherwise). The data should be consistent first; if it is not, the model starts with data integration.
What we do
- Place terrain, drill traces, assays and geophysics in one 3D scene
- Build geological surfaces and volumes from logged contacts, mapping and structural measurements
- Draw grade shells only where hole spacing supports them, and leave open what is open
- Keep alternative interpretations side by side where the data allows more than one
- Show where the model is supported by data and where it is extrapolated
What you get
A model that opens in a browser from a link or a single file: rotate, slice, switch layers, click a hole to read its intervals. Sections and plan views are exported as figures for reports.
Example: terrain, drill traces coloured by grade, geophysical sections, interpreted lithology and grade shells in a model that opens in a browser. A 12-hole project gets a 12-hole model, not a block-model workflow designed for a mine.
What it cannot say
This is an interpretation tool, not a resource model. Surfaces between widely spaced holes are one reading of the geology, and a grade shell is a picture of the assays, not an estimate of tonnes. The model carries no classification under NI 43-101 or JORC.
Questions
How many drillholes do we need before a 3D model is worth building?
Fewer than most people expect. Even with no drilling, terrain, mapping and geophysics in one scene help plan the first holes. What changes with the number of holes is how much interpretation between them is justified.
Can the model be opened without special software?
Yes. It opens in a current web browser on a laptop or tablet. Nothing is installed and no account is needed.
Is this a block model?
No. A block model with estimated grades belongs to resource estimation and needs drilling density that early-stage projects do not have. We build the model the data supports.