Unraveling geological complexity and understanding geological risk are critical components of the challenge that face any mining or exploration venture. This understanding is essential to the successful selection of mineralised domains on which grade estimation relies, so knowledge of the geological characteristics of the mineralised domains is vitally important._x000D_
Nuggety' mineralisation introduces a higher level of risk and geological observation and intuition may be the only option to ensure that opportunities are realised and ore/waste characterisation is undertaken successfully. Mineralisation at the world class Sunrise Dam gold mine contains a significant coarse gold component, which has necessitated the development of a systematic visual approach to decision making that enables geological staff to determine the potential gold grade in the absence of assay results, and in those instances when assay results appear implausible. The development of the Mineralisation (MZ) Code at Sunrise Dam has assisted in reducing the risk of misclassifying ore as waste and enabled geological control to prevail with confidence where complexity and ambiguity existed._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Nugus, M, Biggam, J, Clark, F and Erickson, M, 2009. Development and application of macroscopic geological proxies for gold mineralisation in high nugget environments - an example from the Sunrise Dam Gold Mine, Western Australia, in Proceedings Seventh International Mining Geology Conference 2009, pp 309-318 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).