LEAPFROG GeoStructuralModelling

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Structural Modelling in

Leapfrog Geo
For Leapfrog Geo version 4.3
© 2018 Seequent Limited (“Seequent”). All rights reserved. Unauthorised use, reproduction, or disclosure is
prohibited. Seequent assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in this document. LEAPFROG, SEEQUENT and
are trade marks owned by Seequent. All other product and company names are trade marks or registered trade
marks of their respective holders. Use of these trade marks in this document does not imply any ownership of these
trade marks or any affiliation or endorsement by the holders of these trade marks.

Seequent Limited
P O Box 3894
Christchurch 8140
New Zealand
Introduction to Structural Modelling
Structural modelling is a cornerstone of geological modelling, and getting it right can be the
difference between finding the next ore shoot or missing it completely. In the past, structural
interpretations and measurements have been underutilised in the modelling process as it has
been difficult to fully incorporate them into the process. This is partially because traditional
structural interpretation tools were only available in independent boutique programs. Now
these important tools are embedded within a powerful 3D modelling program and combined
with complete workflows so that you can make the most of all the structural data you have
spent time and money gathering.
In this structural modelling training module, we will look at the powerful structural modelling
tools available in Leapfrog Geo. We will review both the tools, and the workflows available to
make sense of all the structural data gathered in both the exploration and mining environments,
with the goal of producing better geological models. We will work with two projects, Castle Hill
and Volstead, through which you will learn the tools and workflows available.
By the end of these sessions, you will:
l Import all necessary project data
l Use a stereonet in Leapfrog
l Create a form interpolant
l Create a structural surface in a geological model
l Build and use a structural trend
The data files for these session will be provided by the instructor.

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Session 1: Importing Structural Data

Contents
Setting Up the Project and Creating the Topography 3
Importing and Draping the Map 4
Importing Polyline Contacts 5
Importing Drillholes 6
Importing Faults 7
Importing Structural Data 7
Declustering Structural Data 11

Goals
In this session, we will import a topography mesh and a geological map, drillholes with
downhole structural measurements, planar structural measurements and fault surfaces. By
the end of these sessions, you will know how to:
l Display a surface by face dips
l Import Leapfrog colour files
l Decluster structural data
The data files for this session can be found in the Sessions \ Session 1 to 4 - Castle Hill folder.

Setting Up the Project and Creating the Topography


This project will include drillhole data and a topography, along with a rough geological map,
polylines, faults, and surface and downhole structural measurements. Using this data, we will
look at the structural tools available in Leapfrog Geo, including stereonets, form interpolants
and structural surfaces, amongst others.
First we will create a new project and set up the topography.
1. Create a new project and call it “Castle Hill”.
2. Import the Castle Hill Topography mesh into the Meshes folder.
3. Right-click on the Topographies folder and select New Topography > From Surface.
4. Select the topography mesh and give your topography a name.
5. Drag the new topography surface into the scene to view it.

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By default the topography will be displayed as Flat colour. Using the display dropdown in the
shape list, you can also display the topography by Elevation or Face dip:

6. Select Face dip:

All surfaces in Leapfrog can be displayed by their face dip, which is the dip-angle of the triangle
faces. This makes steeply dipping areas or flat spots easily visible.
The usefulness of displaying a mesh by its face dip ranges from simply identifying flat spots for
placing a drill rig to helping to understand slope stability before entering a region, to
highlighting deformation and geological features.

Importing and Draping the Map


1. Right-click on the GIS Data, Maps and Photos folder and select Import Map.
2. Select the Geological Map.tif.
This map has already been georeferenced, but we will crop out the legend before importing the
map.
3. Click on the Crop Image tool ( ) in the toolbar at the top of the Import Map tab.

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4. Click and drag around the part of the map we want to keep:

5. Click Import.
6. Display the map on the topography by selecting it in the GIS data dropdown list:

The scene will appear similar to this:

Importing Polyline Contacts


Polylines can easily be batch imported into a Leapfrog Geo project. All you need to do is select
the polylines in the Windows Explorer folder and drag them into the project tree.
1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder containing the polylines for this session.
2. Select all the files.

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3. Drag them from the Explorer window into the project:

All of the selected polylines will be imported and added to the Polylines folder. Currently, this
method of importing data is unique to polylines.

Importing Drillholes
1. Right-click the Drillhole Data folder and select Import Drillholes.
2. Browse for and open the Collar file.
The survey and interval tables will automatically be selected as well. There is a fourth file,
Structures.csv, but that is downhole data that we will import in a later step.
3. Click Import.
4. Proceed through the table import steps, accepting the data columns that are automatically
selected.
5. Once imported, view the Litho table in the scene.
You will notice that the unit colours displayed for the drillholes do not match those of the
geological map. We can import a colour file to define the correct colours.
6. Expand the Litho table to show its columns by clicking on the black triangle to its left.
7. Right-click on the Rocktype column and select Colours > Import:

8. Select the Rocktype.lfc file and click Open.


Leapfrog will inform you that the import is complete and how many colour codes were
changed.
There is an error in the Litho table that we will fix.
9. Right-click on the Litho table and select Fix Errors.

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10. In the window that appears, click the Fix Max Depths button.
11. Click Save and close the window.

Importing Faults
For this part of the session, we will import four faults:
l Cheeseman Fault
l Craigieburn Fault
l Flock Hill Fault
l Sugarloaf Fault
Meshes can be batch imported, but unlike polylines, this must be carried out from within
Leapfrog.
1. Right-click on the Meshes folder and select Import Mesh.
2. Select all four meshes using the Ctrl or Shift keys and click Open.
When meshes are imported, a Cleanup Mesh window appears:

3. In many cases, you can accept the defaults. In this case, we will also select to Combine
identical vertices.
These settings are applied to all of the imported faults, but if you wished to change settings for
one of the meshes, simply double-click on it and the Cleanup Mesh window will appear once
again.

Importing Structural Data


Leapfrog Geo has a number of structural tools and workflows to help you make the most of
your structural data. These tools are hosted in the Structural Modelling folder in the project
tree, and include form interpolants, stereonets and structural trends. The Structural Modelling
folder is also where you will import planar structural data and lineations.

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Importing Planar Structural Data
We will start by importing planar structural data from field mapping:
1. Right-click the Structural Modelling folder and select Import Planar Structural Data.
2. Select and open the Field mapping structures file.
3. In addition to the automatically selected columns, import the rocktype column as a
Category.
4. Click Finish.
5. Drag the structural data into the scene:

By default the structural data is displayed using the Flat colour option, which indicates the
polarity of the data points. The dropdown list in the shape list can be used to change the display
colour from Flat colour to dip, azimuth or any of the table’s other columns.
6. Change the display for the structural data to rocktype:

Just as with the drillhole intervals, a colour file can be imported to overwrite their default
colour.
7. Expand the Field mapping structures table in the project tree to reveal its columns.
8. Right-click on the rocktype column and select Colours > Import.
9. Find and open the .lfc file we imported for the drillholes and click Open.

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The colours in the file will be applied to the structural data table. Note that the colours of the
structural disks displayed in the scene now match those shown on the imported map:

By default, structural disks show their down dip line. If you would prefer not to see this line, click
on the structural data in the shape list. In the properties panel untick the Show down dip lines
box:

Importing Additional Columns for Structural Data


Just as you can import additional columns of data to drillhole tables, it’s possible to import new
columns of data into the structural tables in your project.
1. Right-click the Field mapping structures object in the project tree and select Import Column.
2. Navigate to the Field mapping structures csv file, select it and click Open.
3. In the Column Summary, import the Faulting column as a Category.
4. Click Finish.
The Field mapping structures structural data can now also be displayed by their fault block, in
addition to rock type.

Importing Lineations
Next we will import lineations:
1. Right-click on the Structural Modelling folder and select Import Lineations.
2. Select and open the Lineations file.
3. Import the Filter column as a Category and click Finish.
4. Add the lineations to the scene to view them.

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Lineations can be displayed using a Flat colour, by the plunge or trend values or using any or
the additional imported columns:

Importing Downhole Planar Structural Data


Lastly we will import some downhole planar structural data.
1. Right-click on the Drillholes object in the project tree and select Import from File > Planar
Structural Data:

2. Navigate back to the Drillholes folder and select and open the Structures file.
3. In addition to the automatically defined columns, import the Confidence column as
Numeric.
4. Click Finish.
5. Add the downhole structural data to the scene.

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Declustering Structural Data
Some methods of measuring planar rock features can produce overwhelming datasets. There
are automatic tools that can oversample structures, either by scanning the same feature
multiple times, or simply by sampling at intervals that are very small considering the regional
scale.
The declustering tool in Leapfrog makes it easier to handle large, complex structural datasets.
Any planar structural dataset can be thinned to a manageable size while retaining
representative samples across the dataset, based on range and angle tolerance parameters.
You may have noticed that the downhole structural data is quite dense. We will decluster this
data.
1. Right-click on the Structural Modelling folder and select New Declustered Structural Data.
2. Set the Source table to Structures.
3. Set the remaining values as seen in the image below:

Spatial search radius defines the distance over which measurements are grouped into clusters.
This distance is whatever units your project is in; in this case, it is 1m. One representative
measurement is kept per cluster, the structural measurement closest to the mean.
Angular tolerance is used to discard outliers from the calculation of the mean.
If a Priority column is selected, this will change the weighting of each measurement when
calculating the mean, preferentially keeping measurements with a higher level of confidence.
To be used, the confidence/priority column must be imported as Numeric data.
The Select category columns option essentially allows you to decluster separately between
different types of measurements (e.g. bedding, foliation, crenulation, vein, joint, fault, etc.) or
decluster downhole.

The Polarity of the data is important. If a cluster of structures is not consistently oriented,
especially subvertical structures, then the resulting mean calculation will be off. It is possible
to lose an entire cluster because it is considered to be too noisy to pick a representative
measurement.

4. Click OK.

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5. Expand the new declustered object in the project tree.
The declustered set ( ) can be used like an ordinary structural data table. However, it is a filter
on a planar structural data table, which can be seen here where the declustered set is
hyperlinked to the downhole structural data table it was created from:

For example, here the declustered set is available as a filter on the Structures table:

Now that we have imported all the necessary data and declustered the downhole structural
data, we will take a look at the structural tools designed to help with your geological modelling.

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Session 2: Stereonets

Contents
Stereonets in Leapfrog 13
Creating a New Stereonet 14
Adding Structural Data to the Stereonet 15
Viewing Options for Data on the Stereonet 15
Structural Domaining - 2D and 3D Selection 16
Stereonet Statistics 22
3D Stereonets 25

Goals
In this session, we will cover Leapfrog’s interactive stereonet tool, which provides the
capability to interpret complex structural data sets through stereographic projection.
l Create and add data to a stereonet in Leapfrog
l Visualisation and analysis options
l Stereonet statistics
l 2D and 3D selection of structural data
For this session we will use the Castle Hill project from the previous session.

Stereonets in Leapfrog
Stereonets are a tool for analysing orientation data and making interpretations. Traditionally,
measurements are plotted on a 2D stereographic projection looking down on a hemisphere.
Dominant orientations are visible, and it is easy to identify folds and outliers.
Having stereonets in Leapfrog Geo means that you can quickly assess all of your structural data
to gain insights, make interpretations and integrate it into your models.
Leapfrog Geo stereonets are optimised to work with large datasets and support any
combination of mapped, downhole or declustered structural data. They can be viewed as
traditional 2D stereonets in a separate tab, or as a 3D stereonet in the scene window. Built-in
visualisation options such as contouring and statistics provide the means to discover hidden
trends, relationships and geological structures. An interactive selection and categorisation
workflow makes it easy to classify distinct populations of measurements. The selected regions
and colourings are simultaneously linked with the 3D scene for a wider perspective.
Stereonets can be saved as part of a Leapfrog Geo project for quick recall. Stereonet plots can
be exported in PDF format for use outside of Leapfrog.
Now that we’ve had a brief introduction to Leapfrog stereonets, let’s take a look at them in
action.

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Creating a New Stereonet
1. Right-click on the Stereonets folder (in the Structural Modelling folder) and select New
Stereonet.
2. Accept the default name and click OK.
The stereonet will open in a new tab.

Stereonet Options
There are a number of default settings applied when a new stereonet is created.
3. Click on the Options button in the stereonet toolbar:

4. Enter the Title “Castle Hill”.


5. Adjust the Axes intervals, Interval and Offset values as you see fit.
The other settings are:
l Plot type. By default Leapfrog uses the Schmidt (Equal Area) net, but the Wulff (Equal Angle)
net is also available.
l Desample rate. This is on by default to handle very large datasets. The Desample rate is an
angular tolerance, measured in degrees, inside of which all data points are plotted with one
pole and plane. For example, with the desampling rate of 0.50 (degrees) neighbouring
structural data that differ by less 0.5 degrees will be plotted as one pole/plane, whereas
values that differ by greater than 0.5 degrees will be plotted as separate poles/planes. You
can “turn off” desampling by setting it to zero. This means every measurement, regardless of
its angular similarity to its neighbours, will be plotted. Desampling only affects the plotting of
poles and planes, and does not affect contours, statistics and the selection tool.
6. Click OK to close the window.

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Adding Structural Data to the Stereonet
Both planar structural data and lineations can be viewed and selected on a Leapfrog stereonet.
There are two ways to add structural data to the stereonet:
l In the new toolbar at the top of the screen, click the Add button.
l Drag a structural data table from the project tree into the stereonet.
1. Click the Add button.
2. Select the Structures table.
3. Click OK.
4. Drag the Field_mapping_structures table into the stereonet.
Depending on the quantity of structural data in the tables, Leapfrog will either automatically
display the data as contours or poles.

Viewing Options for Data on the Stereonet


Stereonets have a shape list that is similar to the scene view’s shape list and properties panel.
Clicking on an object in the stereonet’s shape list displays more options below:

The different viewing options are designed to help you quickly analyse all your orientation data.
The controls in the stereonet shape list include:
l The Show/Hide toggle ( ), Show/Hide legend in plot and Remove buttons operate as you
would expect.
l Show Planes ( ) displays the structural data planes.
l Show Poles ( ) displays the structural data poles.
l Show Contours ( ) displays the contours for the structural data.
l Show contour legend ( ) displays the contour legend.
l Colour Display option. In addition to Flat colour, structural data can be displayed on the
stereonet based on any imported category data. This is also where you can create a New
Selection. More on that later.

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l Query filter. Plot the structural data from a query built in the project tree. The query filter
can also be used to display declustered structural data.
l Displayed statistics. Choose between displaying the Fisher mean, the Bingham best-fit
plane and Bingham mean plane. Note that the Fisher method does not work well with
steeply dipping or folded datasets.
l Contour Method. You can choose between three different contour methods: Schmidt,
Exponential Kamb and Kamb.
If the structural data is being displayed by a category (ex. rocktype), as opposed to Flat colour,
you will also find a list of codes that can be viewed together or independently on the stereonet.
1. For the two structural data sets that we have plotted, experiment with the different
visualisation tools.
2. Next, hide the Structures object.
3. Click on the Field_mapping_structures object in the stereonet and change its display to
rocktype.
4. View only the Amuri Limestone rocktype:

When viewed separately, each unit has its own contouring and mean pole/plane.

Structural Domaining - 2D and 3D Selection


In addition to being able to perform a 3D selection on points and intervals, it’s also possible for
structural data. The function utilises the familiar brush-selection tool for categorising both
planar and linear structural data. The selection becomes a new column in the data table,
allowing query filters to be used with them.
Selection and categorisation of structural data can be done in 3D (in the scene) or in 2D (in the
stereonet). The same selection column can be edited both in the 3D scene or in the stereonet.

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This selection workflow means geologists can effectively add their interpretation to the
structural data, e.g. by selecting measurements on one limb of a fold or all measurements
within a fault block.
The structural selection tool is also useful for editing incorrectly identified or grouped structural
measurements, or it can be used to quickly flag certain measurements that should be ignored.
In this part of the session, we will create two new selections. The first will cover domaining on
the stereonet and validating in the 3D scene, and the second will cover creating a selection in
the 3D scene window and using it as a query in the stereonet.

Stereonet (2D) Structural Selection


Selections can be created in the stereonet view and then validated and edited in the 3D scene,
allowing for quick identification of structural domains in your project. This stereonet <-> scene
view interaction allows for easier understanding of spatial and statistical distribution of data. For
this part of the session, we’re going to look at the Structures dataset.
1. Switch back to the scene and clear it.
2. Add the Structures table to the scene.
3. Switch back to the Stereonet tab.
4. Create a new window for the Stereonet tab by pulling it away from its docked location.
5. Make the Structures dataset visible on the stereonet and hide the Field_mapping_structures:

6. Click the Show poles button ( ).


Based on this distribution of structural data, we are going to select some structural domains.

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7. Click on the colour display dropdown in the stereonet window and select New selection:

If you select an existing column as the Source Column, you can assign selected points to the
existing categories or create new categories. If you select no Source Column, you need to
define each category manually.
8. Set the Source Column to None.
9. Enter the name “Bedding” and click OK.
A set of tools for selecting data will be added to the stereonet window:

There are two ways to select data in the stereonet, which can be used in combination:
l Use the polygon tool ( ) to draw around points you wish to select. When you close the
polygon, click inside it to select the points.

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l Use the bullseye tool ( ) to select data points one by one or by clicking and dragging around
points.
10. Using the polygon tool ( ), draw around one of the groupings, as shown below:

When the points are selected you can use the radio button options to show the corresponding
Fisher statistics for the selected points, or the Bingham analysis.
11. By default it shows the Fisher Mean statistics; click on the Bingham analysis to show it.
Based on current selection, we can see that the Fisher mean and the Bingham mean pole and
plane are almost identical. We will continue to add additional near vertical measurements to the
selected group and then revisit the two different statistics types.

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12. Continue using the selection tool to add to the current selection as seen below:

13. Again, toggle between the Fisher Mean and the Bingham analysis buttons.
You will now notice a significant difference between the two sets of statistics for the selected
data.

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The Fisher mean, as we noted at the beginning of the session, isn’t suitable for these steeply dipping
measurements (we can see they’re producing a mean dip of ~12 degrees, which we know isn’t
correct). Conversely, the more robust Bingham statistics in this situation more appropriately describe
the distribution of data.

14. Assign them to a new category called “Set 1”.

15. Switch to the scene window to view the Set 1 distribution.


16. Switch back to the Stereonet tab.
17. Continue to select structural domains and assign them to new sets.

Once you are finished with the selections, save the selection.

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Editing a Selection
Once a selection has been created, it can be edited either on the stereonet or in the 3D scene (
). Once the edits have been saved in either the 3D scene or on the stereonet, the corresponding
update occurs in the other location.

Stereonet Statistics
Leapfrog has two options for calculating stereonet statistics: Fisher Vector Distribution and
Bingham Statistics. As mentioned previously, the Fisher method does not work for folded
geology or steep structural sets that plot on both sides of the stereonet.

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The Fisher mean plane, Bingham best-fit plane and Bingham mean plane can be viewed on the
stereonet. They can either be viewed for the dataset as a whole, or broken down by any
category fields available in the dataset.

Fisher Statistics
The Fisher statistics are a vector based analysis method. Vectors (poles) are given an equal
magnitude (1) and summed. The resultant vector is the Fisher mean, the average pole from each
set, from which the mean dip and dip azimuth are calculated.

Data distribution (tightness of clustering) is expressed as R. To calculate R, the magnitude


(length) of the final vector is divided by the number of samples.
l R close to 0 - very poor clustering
l R close to 1 - very good grouping
Kappa, a measure of dispersion, is also calculated.

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In addition to viewing the Fisher mean on the stereonet, view the statistics table by clicking the
Fisher button in the stereonet toolbar.

Fisher statistics work well for simple distributions of data; however, we can see that for Set 1,
which is a steeply dipping structural set split on both sides of the stereonet, the Fisher statistics
are not suitable.

Bingham Statistics
The Bingham statistics are a matrix-based analysis method, which is significantly more robust
(and complicated), and suitable for handling more complexly distributed geological data. This
method can handle both folded and steeply dipping data, as we see on the stereonet.
The data distribution (tightness of clustering) is represented by the weighting between the eigen
vectors, which sum to 1.

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In addition to providing more suitable statistics for complex datasets, the e3 eigen vector is the
pole to the best fit plane (or girdle in folded geology), meaning that e3 is the fold plunge.

3D Stereonets
In addition to the 2D stereonets we have just reviewed, stereonets in Leapfrog can also be
displayed in the 3D scene. Visualising stereonets in the 3D scene helps you find trends,
relationships and geological structures.
1. Click View in the stereonet toolbar to display the stereonet in the scene.

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In the shape list, you can control whether planes or poles are displayed in the scene ( );
contours are not available in the 3D scene. Otherwise, the appearance of the stereonet
displayed in the 3D scene is controlled from the 2D stereonet window.
2. Click back to the Stereonet tab and turn the visibility back on for all units.
3. Click back to the Scene View tab to see the updated 3D stereonet.
In the 3D scene, you can:
l Resize the stereonet. Click on it and use the green arrows to resize it.
l Move the stereonet around in the scene. The controls are the same as those for the moving
plane.
l Centre the stereonet on its input data. To do this, click on the stereonet in the shape list and
then select from its inputs in the Move to list:

Selecting the Data in the Mapped Area (3D Selection)


1. Switch back to the scene window and clear the scene ( ).
2. Drag the Field_mapping_structures object and the Topography into the scene.
You will notice that we have structural measurements outside of the mapped area. It’s possible
these structural measurements are perfectly valid, but we can categorise the data to split them
out in case it becomes necessary to filter them out later on.
3. Right-click on the Field_mapping_structures table in the project tree and select New
Category Selection.
The first thing to define is the Source Column. If you select an existing column as the Source
Column, you can assign selected data points to the existing categories or create new categories.
If you select <None> for the Source Column, you need to define each category manually.
4. Select <None> for the Source Column and name the selection Mapped Area.
5. Click OK.

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A set of tools for selecting data appears in the toolbar:

6. Press the D key to view the scene from above.


7. Click on the Select structures tool ( ) and draw across the structural data within the
mapped area:

If you make a wrong selection, hold the Ctrl key and re-swipe over it to deselect it.
You can change the width of the selection tool by clicking on the line width icon ( ) in the
interval selection toolbar. A line width of 100 allows all the data to be selected in a couple
strokes.

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8. In the Category Selection window, click Assign to, then Create New Category.
9. In the window that appears, enter the name “Mapped Area“, then click OK.

The selected segments will be assigned as the new category. The next steps are to hide the
Mapped Area structural data and then categorise the remaining data points.
10. Click the visibility button ( ) for the Mapped Area points:

11. Click on the Select all visible structures button ( ) to select the remaining points.
12. Assign them to a new category called “Outside Mapped Area”.
13. Click the Save button.
14. Close the Category Selection window.
The structural data can now be viewed in the scene and in the stereonet by where it falls in
relation to the mapped area, as well as by rock type.
Now that the selection has been made, a query can be made on it as well. In this case, we
selected out a particular mapped area, but this tool could also easily be used to select out
erroneous data.

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15. Right-click on the Field_mapping_structures table in the project tree and select New Query
Filter.
16. Click the ... button to build the query.
17. Define the query as follows:
l Set Column to Field_mapping_structures.Mapped_Area
l Set Test to is.
l Set Value to Mapped Area, which can be selected by clicking the ... button.
18. Click OK.
19. Call the query “Mapped Area” and click OK.

20. Switch back to the Stereonet tab.


21. Make sure the Field_mapping_structures table is displayed by rocktype:

22. Using the Query Filter option, view just the structural data that exists in the mapped area:

In this case, the difference isn’t too significant; the data outside the mapped area is likely
perfectly valid and fine to use. In other situations, though, this would be an effective workflow
for removing problematic or unreliable legacy data, if necessary.
23. Change the Query filter back to None.

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Session 3: Form Interpolants

Contents
Form Interpolants 31
Creating a New Form Interpolant 31
Modifying a Form Interpolant 33
Uses for a Form Interpolant 34

Goals
In this session, we will cover Leapfrog Geo’s form interpolant tool, which provides an
excellent visualisation of the overall rock fabric of a region. By the end of this session, you will
be able to:
l Create a form interpolant
l Visualise the regional rock fabric orientation
l Understand the different uses for form interpolants
For this session, we will use the Castle Hill project from the previous sessions.

Form Interpolants
Individual bedding or foliation measurements from pit face-mapping, downhole measurements
and surface mapping are samples of the overall rock fabric orientation. The form interpolant
takes these orientations and interpolates the changing orientation through space. The
isosurfaces (form surfaces) are a good way of visually representing this. Visualising the form
interpolant is incredibly useful for understanding the geology and how that may affect
mineralisation, useful knowledge to improve targeting for future mapping/drilling/geophysics
work.

Creating a New Form Interpolant


1. Clear the scene.
2. Right-click on the Form Interpolants folder (in the Structural Modelling folder) and select
New Form Interpolant.
3. In the Inputs tab, click the Add button.

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4. Select the Field_mapping_structures table:

5. Click OK.

When working with large structural data sets (particularly downhole structural data), it is
highly recommended that the data be declustered prior to being used as an input to a form
interpolant.

For the other settings in the Inputs tab:


l Any Query Filter built on the structural data can be applied to filter the data used for the
form interpolant.
l The Use Polarity option is active by default, as it is important to use structural data polarity to
produce meaningful form interpolants.
l The Boundary filter option allows you to decide whether you want to use all available
structural data to create the form interpolant or limit the data used to just that within the
form interpolant boundary.
6. Switch to the Boundary tab.
By default, the form interpolant’s boundary extends to the edges of the structural dataset
you’ve added, but it can be adjusted. In addition to the standard rectangular boundary, you can
also define the boundary from an existing volume in your model. Right now we will leave the
default.
7. Switch to the Outputs tab.
The default Thresholds are defined by the size of the bounding box. It is important to note that
these Thresholds are designed to provide structural form visualisation and the threshold values
are not meaningful geologically. Accepting the defaults is a great place to start.
8. Change the Default resolution to 50 and click OK.
9. Add the form interpolant to the scene.

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10. Add the Field_mapping_structuresdata table to the scene.

Modifying a Form Interpolant


It’s easy to modify a form interpolant by simply double-clicking on it in the project tree.
1. Double-click on the form interpolant.
2. Click the Add button.
3. Select the declustered downhole Structures table.
4. Click on the Boundary tab.
A set of controls will appear in the scene that allow you to adjust the form interpolant’s
boundary.
5. Add the declustered downhole Structures table to the scene.
6. Examine the extents and make adjustments, if necessary, to ensure the boundary encloses all
the data.
7. Click OK.
Now that we have created and modified a form interpolant, let’s take a look at its components.
8. Expand the form interpolant in the project tree to view all its components:

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When a form interpolant is created, a merged structural data object ( ) is also created that
represents all the structural data used in the form interpolant.

Uses for a Form Interpolant


As we have seen, form interpolants are useful for visualising structural data and identifying
broad trends in 3D. Previously unidentified patterns and regional structures can become
apparent with the help of form interpolants. They may be visualised as isosurfaces or evaluated
onto surfaces, points and block models.

Evaluating Onto Topography


Evaluating a form interpolant onto topography is a good way of visualising it.
1. Right-click the Topography and select Evaluations.
2. Select the form interpolant, click OK.
3. Clear the scene.
4. Add the topography to the scene.
5. Click the D key to view it from above.
6. Change the GIS data display option so the geological map is partly transparent.
7. Select the form interpolant from the colour list:

You will notice that when compared with the geological map (faintly displayed in the image)
that you can see the folds in the evaluated form interpolant. This could lead to interpretations
not yet drawn from the mapping.

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Structural Trends and Offset Surfaces
While we haven’t built any structural trends or offset surfaces in this project, these are two other
very helpful applications of form interpolants.
l A structural trend is the best tool to guide a numeric model (e.g. Au, Cu, etc). Structural
trends are typically built using meshes you manually create to reflect the structural
orientation in a region. Alternatively, isosurfaces from form interpolants can be dynamically
applied to structural trends to control the anisotropy of your grade models.
l Form interpolants can also be used as the reference surface in the offset surface tool, to
guide surfaces between data.

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36 of 56 © 2018 Seequent Limited
Session 4: Structural Surfaces

Contents
Structural Surfaces 37
Creating a New Geological Model 37
Building the First Surface 38
Building the Remaining Surfaces 40
Activating the Faults 41
Editing the Model 41

Goals
In this session, we will cover building contact surfaces in a geological model using a
structural surface. In addition to standard surface input data, structural surfaces can use
non-contacting structural data to influence and guide the overall geometry.
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
l Build a geological model with faults and structural surfaces
l Edit structural surfaces using points and polylines
For this session, we will use the Castle Hill project from previous sessions.

Structural Surfaces
Leapfrog Geo’s structural surfaces allow you to put all your structural data to use in your
models, not just the data that lies along unit contacts. In the session, we will use these structural
surfaces to build our geological model.

Creating a New Geological Model


1. Set up a new geological model with the following settings:
l Base lithology column to Rocktype
l Boundary to enclose the full mapped area, drillholes and topography
l Resolution to 50
2. Click OK.

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3. Double-click the top level GM.
4. Change Snap to data to All data.
5. Untick the Exact Clipping box.
6. Click OK.
7. Add the four faults to the geological model but do not activate them yet.

Building the First Surface


Before activating the faults, we will build the surfaces to look at the “big picture”. We will start by
building a surface using the standard deposit tool and then rebuild it using the new structural
surface tool. This will help us to understand and appreciate the difference.
1. Clear the scene.
2. Right-click on the Surface Chronology and select New Deposit > From Base Lithology.
3. Select the Enys Formation.
4. Select Use contacts below so that it’s contacting Amuri Limestone.
5. Click OK.
This deposit surface is only taking into consideration the contact points between the Enys
Formation and the Amuri Limestone. If we wanted to incorporate structural data to modify this
surface, it would have to be along the contacts. The requires a lot of refining of most datasets.
As an alternative, we can create this surface as a structural surface.
6. Right-click on the Surface Chronology and select New Structural Surface.
7. Under Select non-contact structural data click the Add button.
8. Select the Field_mapping_structures and the declustered downhole Structures tables.
9. Click OK.
10. Leave the default settings unchanged for Query filter and Use Polarity.
11. Under Select other input data, click the Add button.
12. Select Base lithology.
13. Select the Enys Formation.

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14. Select Use contacts below.

15. Click OK.


Back in the New Structural Surface window, we can change the Contact Type if we wish, but
there is no need to do so for this session.
16. Change the name of the surface to “Amuri Limestone - Enys Formation Structural Surface”.
17. Click OK.
18. Add both surfaces to the scene.
19. Add the drilling data to the scene, along with the structural data:

While both surfaces honour the drillhole data well, the structural surface is a much better
reflection of the structural information and the mapping.

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We can also add a mapped polyline contact to the surface to refine it further.
20. Right-click on the structural surface and select Add > Polylines.
21. Select the Enys F- Amuri L object.
22. Click OK.
23. Compare the refined surface with the map on the topography.

Building the Remaining Surfaces


We will build the remaining surfaces following the same process. We need to define the
following surfaces and settings:
l Amuri Limestone, Use both, Coleridge Sandstone only
l Coleridge Sandstone, Use contacts below, Iron Creek Greensand
l Iron Creek Greensand, Use contacts below, Charter’s Bay Sandstone only
l Charter’s Bay Sandstone, Use contacts below, Broken River Formation
We will not worry about the Quarternary Sediments.
For each surface:
1. Right-click on the Surface Chronology and select New Structural Surface.
2. For Select non-contact structural data, click the Add button.
3. Add the Field_mapping_structures and the declustered downhole Structures tables.
4. Click OK.
5. Under Select other input data, click the Add button.
6. Select Base lithology.
7. Select the primary lithology.
8. Select either Use both or Use contacts below, as listed above.
9. Set up the Contacting lithologies to match the list above.
10. Click OK, then click OK again.
11. Create the next surface.
12. Add the Polyline contact information for each surface.
13. Double-click on the Surface Chronology.
14. Arrange the surfaces in chronological order:
l Enys Formation (youngest/top)
l Broken River Formation (oldest/bottom)
15. Tick the boxes for all surfaces except the deposit surface ( ).
16. Set the Background lithology to Torlesse Greywacke.
17. Click OK.

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Activating the Faults
So far this model has been created with no faulting. We can do this without setting fault
interactions.
1. Double-click on the Fault System in the project tree.
2. Tick the boxes to activate the faults.
3. Click OK.
4. Slice through the model to review it.

Editing the Model


While the model volumes mostly match the drilling and the mapping, there are a few key edits
we can make to improve it. In order to carry out the steps in this part of the session, we need to
identify each fault block.
1. Clear the scene.
2. Right-click on the geological model in the project tree and select View Fault Block
Boundaries.
3. Click the D key to view the scene from above.
4. Click on a fault block, locate it in the project tree and rename it according to its position in the
scene:

We will edit surfaces in the North West 1, Middle and South East fault blocks.

Editing the North West 1 Fault Block’s Surfaces


There is little data in this block other than the surface contacts. Polyline edits can help modify
the necessary surfaces: Coleridge, Iron Creek, Charter’s Bay and Broken River.

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1. Clear the scene.
2. Add the Iron Creek Greensand - Coleridge Sandstone contacts surface to the scene.
3. Right-click on the surface in the project tree and select Edit > With Polyline.
4. Cut a slice N-S across the block
5. Using either the points or the line tool, digitise a line above the topography to pull the surface
up:

6. Edit the Charter’s Bay Sandstone - Iron Creek Greensand contacts using the same technique.

7. Edit the Broken River - Charter’s Bay Sandstone contacts using the same technique.

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North West 2, Middle and South East Fault Blocks
Polyline edits can also be completed for surfaces in North West 2, Middle and South East fault
blocks.
For North West 2 fault block, edit the Broken River - Charter’s Bay Sandstone contacts.
For Middle fault block, edit the Amuri Limestone - Enys Formation contacts, Iron Creek
Greensand - Coleridge Sandstone contacts, Charter’s Bay Sandstone - Iron Creek Greensand
contacts and the Broken River Formation - Charter’s Bay Sandstone contacts.
For South East fault block, edit the Amuri Limestone - Enys Formation contacts.

Geological models, fault block boundaries, numerical models and form interpolants can all
be evaluated onto structural data to assist in interpretation.

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Session 5: Structural Trends

Contents
What is a Structural Trend? 45
Setting up the Project 45
Create the Geological Model 46
Structural Trend Inputs 47
Creating Our Own Trend Mesh 48
Using a Existing Mesh in the Project 49
Creating a Structural Trend 50
Applying a Structural Trend 55
Exercise: Apply a Structural Trend to a Numeric Model 55

Goals
In this session, we are going to investigate structural trends. The session starts with an
introduction and notes and moves on to a practical demonstration and exercises. At the end
of this session, you will:
l Know what a structural trend is and how it relates to a global trend
l Have been exposed to the options for creating structural trends and understand when to
use them
l Be aware of the limitations of structural trends and so know when to stop modifying the
parameters and switch to another method
The data files for this session can be found in the Sessions \ Session 5 - Volstead folder.

What is a Structural Trend?


A structural trend is a generalisation of the global trend that allows changes in direction of
continuity over a defined surface. Instead of being based on a single plane, like the global trend
with the user defining the ellipsoid ratios, the structural trend is based on a surface. This surface
can be any shape or orientation, usually defined by geological constraints such as faulting,
foliation, etc. The structural trend works with the continuity provided by the geologist in the
form of meshes, structural data and/or form interpolants to automatically construct
overlapping domains, perform interpolations in each domain and then smoothly blend them
together to create an overall surface.
Structural trends can be applied to numeric models in Leapfrog, as well as to intrusion contact
surfaces in geological models.

Setting up the Project


1. Create a new project and call it “Volstead”.
2. Import topography points and use them to create a topography.

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3. Import the georeferenced aerial photo.
4. Import the drillhole data (collar, survey, assays and lithology).
5. Fix the errors in the drillhole data.
6. Import the downhole structural data.
This project contains both simple lithology data and assay data. For the discussion of structural
trends, we will use the simplified lithology information. At the end of this session, there is an
reinforcement exercise to go through the process of applying a structural trend to a numeric
model.

Create the Geological Model


1. Create a new geological model using the Lith column.
2. Set the Boundary to enclose the drillholes and set the Resolution to 20:

3. Click OK.
4. Right-click on the Surface Chronology and select New Intrusion > From Base Lithology.

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5. Select Mineralised Zone for the interior lithology and Basement for the exterior lithology:

6. Click OK.
7. Add the surface to the scene:

By default, Leapfrog uses an isotropic interpolant to produce the surface, which does not
define any preferred orientation. While this can help us to visualise broad trends, it also
produces a rather unrealistic-looking, spherical appearance to the surface. In most cases,
applying a trend of some form (global or structural) is necessary. In this case, the single plane
available to define the orientation offered by the global trend is insufficient for defining the
overall curved orientation of this mineralised zone. For this intrusion, we need a structural trend.

Structural Trend Inputs


To create a structural trend, we need data that follows the trend we interpret. This can be
structural data, allowing the structural deformation defined by the trend to be dynamically
linked to the measured structural data itself. Alternatively, this can be curved surface(s) that you
either create yourself using the drawing tools in Leapfrog or pull from existing meshes present
elsewhere in the project. By allowing any mesh in the project to be used, you can dynamically
link your mineralisation structural trend to your fault and contact surfaces, for example.

Be careful, though, when using a dynamic mesh in the project to define your structural

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trend. An inadvertent change to that mesh can have unwanted downstream affects on
objects influenced by your trend.

Both structural data and meshes can be used together to generate a structural trend.
In this session, we are going to make a few different trends from the different inputs. We have
already imported the structural data, so that option is set, but we will look at another couple of
ways of defining the trend: creating our own trend mesh and using a mesh from elsewhere in
the project.

Creating Our Own Trend Mesh


If we don’t already have existing information to use to create a structural trend input, we can
digitise it ourselves.
1. Create a slice on which to draw a polyline to create a mesh.
In the example image below, it would make sense to slice perpendicular to the trend direction.

2. Create a new polyline and digitise along the centre of the trend.
You can use either curved polylines or points.

3. Move the slicer to a new elevation and digitise another polyline or set of points.
4. Repeat 1 or 2 more times on different levels.
5. Save the polyline.
6. Remove the slicer from the scene to review your polylines/points.
7. Right-click the Meshes folder and select New Mesh > From Polyline.

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8. Set the extents to enclose the area you want influenced by the trend mesh.

9. Click OK.
10. In the next window, select Existing Polyline and select the Trend polyline:

11. Click OK.


12. Add the trend mesh to the scene:

The trend mesh is a good visualisation of the trend. If it is not, make any adjustments to the
polylines to tweak the orientation of the trend mesh.

Using a Existing Mesh in the Project


The easiest option for creating a structural trend is to import a representative trend mesh from
elsewhere, but there are several tools in Leapfrog that will generate meshes that are useful as
structural trend input meshes. Faults, contact surfaces, vein reference surfaces, form
interpolant surfaces, etc are all great candidates for structural trend meshes.
In this session, we will create a simple form interpolant and use one of its meshes as a structural
trend input mesh.
1. Right-click on the Form Interpolant folder and select New Form Interpolant.
2. Add the downhole Structures.
3. Click on the Boundary tab and extend as appropriate.

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4. Click on the Outputs tab to review the defaults.
5. Accept the defaults here and click OK.
6. Clear the scene.
7. Drag the form interpolant into the scene:

You will notice its orientation is quite similar to the mesh we hand digitised.

Creating a Structural Trend


Next we will create a structural trend.
1. Right-click the Structural Trends folder (in the Structural Modelling folder and select New
Structural Trend.
The Structural Trend window will appear:

The input mesh can be used to create one of three types of trends that behave slightly
differently. Each trend type is covered in more detail in the examples below. What they do have
in common, though, is the Strength and Range parameters. The strength is similar to the
ellipsoid ratio and dictates how much elongation or stretch you have in a certain direction. The
range, on the other hand, is the distance from the mesh in which the trend has effect. To make it
easier to visualise the trend, discs are displayed along the mesh. The size and shape of the discs
represents the strength and orientation of the trend, and can range from circular to cigar
shapes, depending on the type of trend used.

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Trend Types
A Non-decaying trend is similar to global trends in that they have influence across the entire
model (no set range), but they can be built from a mesh, structural data or from multiple meshes
of any shape. A non-decaying trend is particularly useful in cases where all locations within the
model need to follow the same trend with a consistent strength throughout the model.

A Strongest along inputs trend allows you to create multiple trends that decay in strength back
to the estimated global trend of the data based on a set range. This is particularly useful where
there is strong geological continuity along a certain trend, with intervals away from this
behaving either more isotropically or in a planar manner. In the image below, we can see the
discs are largest along the trend mesh in the center, and reduce in size (strength) as they move
away from the mesh, over a defined range:

A Blending trend allows you to build a trend from multiple meshes, specifying a range and
strength for each mesh. If two or more of the trends intersect each other, Leapfrog Geo will
work out a combined trend. The blended trend is perfect for situations where two or more
trends merge and you want to have a smooth transition from one to the other or show the

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combined effect. The image below shows the blending trend (solid coloured ellipsoids) with the
strongest along inputs trend overlaid (red triangle outlines). The blending trend captures not
only the horizontal trend, but cross-cutting one too (creating a plunging effect):

Compatibility
There are 2 Compatibility versions (1 and 2). Version 2 has been available since Geo 2.2 and
should be used for any new projects. Version 1 remains an option to be compatible with
surfaces created in older versions.

Trend Inputs
We have three different Trend Inputs in this project: the structural data, our hand digitised
mesh and the form interpolant meshes. We’ll start with adding just the mesh we created.
2. In the Structural Trend window, set the Trend Type to be Strongest along inputs.
3. Click Add and select the mesh you created from the polyline.
There are two parameters to define: Strength and Range:
The Strength is the strength of the structural trend and determines the strongest anisotropy of
the trend as a ratio of the length of the major axis to the length of the minor axis. So the default
value of 5 gives an oblate spheroid that is 5 times wider than it is thick. This corresponds to the
anisotropy value of 5:5:1 for a global anisotropy.
The orientation of the ellipsoid is derived from the normal on the closest point on the mesh. In
that way, the ellipsoids follow the mesh directionally.
However, note that in the visual representation, there are some ellipsoids that are larger and
some that are smaller. The meaning of the size of the ellipsoids is related to the strength of the
trend at that point; a smaller ellipsoid implies that it has a smaller strength. The reason we chose
to display the trends like this is to make the extent of the trend easier to see.
The parameter governing the change in strength as you move away from the mesh is the Range
parameter. This parameter governs how localised a structural trend is around the meshes. As
you move away from the mesh, the strength of the anisotropy decreases towards isotropic. The
way in which the anisotropy varies is multiplicative: As you move out a distance of range, r, the
anisotropy drops by a factor of 2. For example, if we have a strength of 5 and a range of 100, the
effective anisotropy at the mesh is 5:5:1. At a distance of 100m, the anisotropy has dropped to a
factor of 2.5:2.5:1. At 200m, the anisotropy is 1.25:1.25:1 and so on. Although it never reaches

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isotropic, it approaches it quickly and is practically indistinguishable from isotropic at 3 times the
range.
4. Set the Strength to 5 and the Range to 100.
5. Click OK.
6. Clear the scene.
7. Add your structural trend to the scene along with its mesh:

8. Create a few different structural trends using the different inputs in the project and using
different strength and range values.

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Applying a Structural Trend
Now that we have created a (few) structural trend(s), we can apply it to our intrusion surface.
1. Double-click on the Mineralised Zone intrusion surface in your geological model.
2. Click on the Surfacing tab.
3. Click on the Additional Options button.
This opens up the option to use a structural trend, the Value Clipping tab and the Interpolant
tab.
4. Click on the Trend tab and select one of your structural trends.
5. Leave the Outside value as -1 and click OK.

The Outside value is a value implemented to correct an artefact known as “the Lego block”
or “waffle” effect. The isosurface is being created at a value of 0.0 (the contact), but when
there is a lack of contrast between the “interior” and “exterior’ (a lack of exterior points), the
isosurfacer can get “lost”. To fix this, an Outside value can be set and this is the value that the
isosurfacer sees away from the data. It should be set to -1 (or a greater negative number for
increased effect). The default is -1. If you enter a positive value, the surface will flip inside out.

6. Switch to the Interpolant tab and select Spheroidal.


7. When the surface regenerates, view it in the scene:

8. Complete the geological model by double-clicking on the Surface Chronology and ticking
the box for the surface.
9. Set the Background lithology to Basement and click OK.

Exercise: Apply a Structural Trend to a Numeric


Model
In addition to intrusion surfaces, structural trends are also very important for guiding numeric
models (e.g. mineralisation).
In this dataset, we have Au assay data.
1. Create a new RBF interpolant for Au, enclosing the drillhole segments.

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When you look at the first pass created, it is clearly in need of improvement.

2. Double-click on the numeric model and make the following adjustments:


l Outputs tab: Set Iso Values to 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3. Set the Default resolution to 15.
l Interpolant tab: Change Interpolant method to Spheroidal, the Base Range to 150, and the
Drift to None.
3. Reprocess the model.
By adjusting parameters in just those two tabs, there has been a significant improvement to the
grade shells. They are still, however, rather “blobby” due to their default isotropic environment.
4. Copy the numeric model by right-clicking on it and selecting Copy.
5. Double-click on the copy and click on the Trend tab.
6. Select one of your structural trends.
7. Leave the Outside value as 0.

The Outside value when applied to numeric models allows you to specify the value that the
interpolant decays to at a distance away from the input data. This can be useful to change
when the background grade value is higher than 0 (i.e. if you have bound your numeric
model to the centre of your orebody and you expect a background grade above detection
limit).

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