Abstract: In view of the defects in the conventional mineral reserve calculation method and geostatistical mineral reserve calculation method, a new mineral reserve calculation method that combines mean value and interpolation methods is proposed.This method first sets up the grids, divides the grids into two categories: containing samples or not, calculates their grade values by mean value method and inverse distance square method respectively, and further obtains the reserve of the grids and also of the whole orebody.This reserve calculation method can not only solve the problem of not high accuracy of the conventional algorithm but also eliminate the drawback of a too much calculation work involved in geostatistical method.The feasibility of the new algorithm has been proved in the practical calculation of the reserve of an orebody in Zijinshan gold deposit.

Key words: Mineral reserve calculation, Mean value method, Inverse distance square weighting