A Hybrid Estimation Technique Using Elliptical Radial Basis Neural Networks and Cokriging

Mineral resource estimation is an integral part of making informed decisions while evaluating a mining operation’s feasibility. Geostatistical tools estimate geological features with the assumptions of first and second-order stationarity. Kriging is considered the best linear unbiased estimation technique for modelling geological features; however, in domains where data is non-Gaussian, and features are complex, the assumption of stationarity and the linearity of kriging can lead to suboptimal estimates. This manuscript presents a hybrid machine learning and geostatistical algorithm to improve estimation in complex domains. Elliptical radial basis function neural networks (ERBFN) take advantage of non-stationary functions to generate geological estimates. An ERBFN does not require the assumption of stationarity, and the only input features required are the spatial coordinates of the known data. The proposed hybrid estimation considers the machine learning estimate as exhaustive secondary data in ordinary intrinsic collocated cokriging, taking advantage of kriging’s exactitude while including the non-stationary features modelled in the ERBFN. The principle results of integrating geostatistics and machine learning indicate an improved estimation technique in domains with complex features, poorly defined domains, or non-Gaussian data. The major conclusion from this paper is that using the proposed hybrid algorithm can improve mineral resource estimations.