Abstract

Sampling error is the degree to which the concentration of an element differs from the true element concentration of the material from which the sample was collected. Gold mineralization commonly exhibits sampling errors as large as 50–100%. As a result, collection and preparation of drill samples from Au mineralization can provide significant challenges for the geoscientist, largely because of the coarse particulate nature of Au. To avoid this, geoscientists have opted to collect and prepare larger drill samples to reduce the magnitude of this ‘nugget effect’.