Friedrich-Wilhelm Wellmer worked for the German mining company Metallgesellschaft world wide and he was Director of Exploration for the Metallgesellschaft of Australia in Melbourne before joining the Federal German Geological Survey, the BGR in Hannover. From 1996 to 2005 he was Director of the BGR and also of the State Geological Survey of Lower Saxony. Wellmer taught raw materials policy and economic geology at the Technical University Berlin.

Manfred Dalheimer worked for the mining companies Centromin Perú and Metallgesellschaft before joining the BGR. From 1991 to 1997 he was head of Mining and Environment, and from 1997 to 2003 of Mineral Economics. Since 2003 he has been head of International Cooperation, America. Dalheimer is a mineralogist and holds a doctorate in economic geology.

Markus Wagner is a specialist in the assessment and evaluation of mineral resources. Since 2003 he has been head of Mineral Economics as well as Mining for the BGR. He has worked as an exploration geologist, project manager and consultant in many countries. Wagner is a geologist and industrial engineer and holds a doctorate in mineral economics.

In the course of the exploration of mineral deposits and mining activities, abundant data are gathered that need statistical treatment for the evaluation of the economical success of the project. Together with the companion volume, Economic Evaluations in Exploration, this book offers a complete survey of methods, illustrated by practical examples.

Preface.- The Most Important Notations and Abbreviations.- 1 Introduction to Some Fundamental Statistical Concepts.- 1.1 General Definitions.- 1.2 Frequency Distribution.- A Mineral Deposit Statistics.- 2 Treatment of the Data Set.- 3 Mean, Variance and Standard Deviation.- 4 The Normal Distribution.- 5 Testing the Normal Distribution Hypothesis.- 6 Standard Deviation and Variance of the Mean.- 7 Estimation of the Error.- 8 Skewed Distributions.- 9 The Use of the Lognormal Distribution.- 10 Other Distributions for the Evaluation of Mineral Deposit Data.- 11 Statistical Problems Encountered in Sampling and the Analytical Results.- 12 Problems Related to Cut-Off Levels.- 13 Geostatistical Calculations.- 14 Further Statistical Considerations for Evaluating Mineral Deposits.- 15 Bias in Reserve Calculations.- B Exploration Statistics.- 16 Introduction.- 17 Defining an Exploration Grid.- 18 Determining Anomalies from Geochemical Exploration Data.- 19 Other Methods for Defining Anomalies.- 20 Defining a Drill Grid.- 21 Assessing the Exploration Risk.- Appendix Tables 1-15.- Appendices A1/A2, B1/B2, C1/C2.- References.