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For more information on the USGS-the Federal source for science about the Earth, its natural and living resources, natural hazards, and the environment-visit http://www.usgs.gov or call 1-888-ASK-USGS For an overview of USGS information products, including maps, imagery, and publications, visit http://www.usgs.gov/pubprodTo order this and other USGS information products, visit http://store.usgs.gov Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted material contained within this report. Quick-Start Guide for Version 3.0 of EMINERSEconomic Mineral Resource SimulatorBy Walter J. Bawiec and Gregory T. Spanski IntroductionQuantitative mineral resource assessment, as developed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), consists of three parts: (1) development of grade and tonnage mineral deposit models; (2) delineation of tracts permissive for each deposit type; and (3) probabilistic estimation of the numbers of undiscovered deposits for each deposit type (Singer and Menzie, 2010). The estimate of the number of undiscovered deposits at different levels of probability is the input to the EMINERS (Economic Mineral Resource Simulator) program.EMINERS uses a Monte Carlo statistical process to combine probabilistic estimates of undiscovered mineral deposits with models of mineral deposit grade and tonnage to estimate mineral resources. It is based upon a simulation program developed by Root and others (1992), who discussed many of the methods and algorithms of the program. Various versions of the original program (called "MARK3" and developed by David H. Root, William A. Scott, and Lawrence J. Drew of the USGS) have been published (Root, Scott, and Selner, 1996;Duval, 2000Duval, , 2012.The current version (3.0) of the EMINERS program is available as USGS Open-File Report 2004-1344(Duval, 2012. Changes from version 2.0 include updating 87 grade and tonnage models, designing new templates to produce graphs showing cumulative distribution and summary tables, and disabling economic filters. The economic filters were disabled because embedded data for costs of labor and materials, mining techniques, and beneficiation methods are out of date. However, the cost algorithms used in the disabled economic filters are still in the program and available for reference for mining methods and milling techniques included in Camm (1991).EMINERS is written in C++ and depends upon the Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 programming environment. The code depends heavily on the use of Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) for implementation of the Windows interface. The program works only on Microsoft Windows XP or newer personal computers. It does not work on Macintosh computers.This report demonstrates how to execute EMINERS software using default settings and existing deposit models. Many options are available when setting up the simulation. Inf...

A discovery-process model was used to predict, as of January 1, 1977, the expected number and size distribution of oil and gas fields remaining to be discovered in the study area in the Gulf of Mexico and also to forecast the rate at which these fields will be discovered in the future. These predictions and forecasts were done separately for the combined Miocene-Pliocene trend area, which occupies 123,027 km* of the study area, and the Pleistocene trend area, which occupies 33,612 km*. In both these areas, water depths ranged from 0 to 200m. As of January 1,1977, more than 2,700 oil and gas fields were still expected to be discovered in both trends. These fields range in size from 0.76 million to 194.3 million barrels of producible oil equivalent. Most of these fields (94.5 percent) are predicted to contain less than 12.14 million BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) each. The rate at which these oil and gas fields will be discovered is forecasted to start at approximately 1.25 million BOE per wildcat well. This rate is forecasted to decline to about half this yield per wildcat well after the drilling of 2,600 wildcat wells in the combined Miocene-Pliocene trend area and 1,200 wildcat wells in the Pleistocene trend area. Analysis of data from areas where exploration has been relatively unrestricted indicates that the size distribution of oil and gas fields has a log-geometric form. As a result of this analysis, a new procedure was devised to estimate the form of the underlying size distribution of oil and gas fields in areas, such as the study area, where the discovery-data series has been truncated by economic factors. 'Designation for "High Island area." 'Designation for "large block." 'Designation for "dry and abandoned wildcat well." 'Designation for "Miocene trend." 'Designation for "Federal lease sale number 22 (which was held on Apr. 21, 1968).

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