What is Unfolding and When to Use It?

Unfolding, in the context of Geo or Resource Modeling, is a space transformation technique that transforms composites and orebody meshes to a flattened space. Interpolation happens in the flattened space, and the interpolated block attributes are then transformed back to the original (folded) space. This technique is best suited for folded deposits where the orebody was folded due to tectonic pressure after it had been deposited. Since attributes are assumed to have existed prior to folding, interpolation in unfolded space would tend to result in a more accurate resource estimate.

The above screenshot illustrate the concept where dark blue mesh represents the original folded orebody mesh and the dark red mesh represents the unfolded orebody. The picture also contains folded and unfolded composites with the legend for grade intervals.

Unfolding currently is available in the Ordinary Kriging and Inverse Distance Weighted Interpolation methods in GeoMine-GeoModeler.