I Think, Therefore I Add Value – Philosophy of Science as a Practical Tool for the Mine Geologist

摘要

The philosophical context of many activities in mine geology can be an important lever in addingrnvalue to operations. For mine geologists (including resource and grade control geologists) wernargue that the tasks of problem formulation, observation and data collection, interpretation andrnmodelling invoke various philosophical considerations whether the practitioner is aware of themrnor not.rnConstructing testable models to explain reality is the defi nitive aspect of any activity claiming tornbe ‘scientifi c’. A primary goal of mining geology is to build models that accurately predict realityrnto an acceptable degree and these include litho-structural, stratigraphic, grade control, resourcernor reconciliation models. What’s more, in mine geology we are often able collect additional drillrnsamples or access new underground openings, for example, that can provide relatively rapidrnfeedback on how predictive, and therefore useful, our models are. In this paper, we describernthe key philosophical frameworks proposed for conducting scientifi c investigations, includingrnfalsifi cation, the method of multiple working hypotheses and structural concepts of scientifi crntheory. The strengths and weaknesses of these approaches are discussed and an attempt is madernto relate them to activities undertaken by mine geologists.rnCommon perceptions of what constitutes the scientifi c method have been dominated by howrnscientists do experimental physics and chemistry in particular. There are very important differencesrnin the types of problem confronted in these experimental sciences compared to the ‘historicalrnsciences’, such as geology, where the processes studied are unique and only evidential traces ofrnpast events are available. The philosophical implications of attempting to validate numericalrngeological models, such as resource estimates are also briefl y considered.rnSome practical conclusions are drawn about how mine geology activities can be betterrnimplemented if practitioners are cognisant of the importance of philosophical considerationsrnwhen attempting to gain new knowledge through a scientifi c investigation. We believe that thernimplications for creating additional value to a project or operation can be very signifi cant whenrngeology is applied by a practitioner with an understanding of the philosophical basis of the activitiesrnwe think of as constituting a scientifi c investigation.rnRemember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they havernto be to not be useful? (Box and Draper, 1987, 74 p).rnThe demand that theories be highly falsifi able has the attractive consequence that theoriesrnshould be clearly stated and precise. If a theory is so vaguely stated that it is not exactlyrnclear what it is claiming, then when tested by observation or experiment it can always berninterpreted so as to be consistent with the results of the test. (Chalmers, 1999, 67 p).