Volume Visualization Approach for Modeling Mineral Deposits

Traditional methods for modeling mineral deposits involve two independent parts, i.e., geometric modeling and attribute computing. Based upon volume visualization, an approach for the modeling of mineral deposits was presented to integrate the computation of deposit attributes into the modeling of deposit geometry, including the preprocessing of volume data, the three-dimensional rendering of mineral deposits and the calculating of deposit attributes. Three types of volume visualization models for mineral deposits are introduced and a case study is described. It is concluded that this approach can improve the modeling of mineral deposits in terms of the integration of visual display and attribute analysis.