Mapping The Distribution of Iron Content in Nickel Laterite Deposits Using Indicator Kriging and Ordinary Kriging Interpolation Method
Beside containing nickel (Ni), nickel laterite deposits also contain other elements, including iron (Fe) which have varying levels in each layer. In this study, the distribution of Fe content in the limonite layers was carried out using the indicator kriging method to analyze the probability distribution of iron levels and ordinary kriging to analyze the variability of iron levels spatially. Fitting the variogram was undertaken by using spherical, exponential and gaussian models. The selection of the best variogram model was carried out based on the smallest root mean square error (RMSE) value, while the estimation of resource potential was calculated by the polygon extended area method. The results of the interpolation show that the distribution of iron anomaly occupies ± 83,3% of the research area with a potential resource of ±64.522.110 ton of iron. The evaluation of the interpolation results base on the root mean square standardized prediction error (RMSP) indicates that the estimation results of iron content using the ordinary kriging method are underestimated.