393 (b) It facilitates and optimizes mine planning and blending (combining blocks with high contents of clays, carbonates, marcasite, etc. with blocks of smaller content). (c) Based on Geological Fragmentation Units (GFUs), fragmentation can be optimized, from blasting (chemical comminution) to crushing and grinding (mechanical comminution), giving each type of lithology or rock mass its corresponding blasting or comminution treatment (by percussion, pressure or torque). KEYWORDS Geometallurgy, block model, geometallurgical logging, metallurgical recovery and costs 1. INTRODUCTION Geometallurgy is a new and fascinating specialty; unfortunately, its current widespread practice, based on metallurgical tests of composites, is not yielding good results. The main reason is that composites fail to represent the inherent heterogeneity of ore deposits, and for this reason, metallurgical tests performed on them fail when their results are extrapolated to millions of tons. In this paper we will present alternatives that fully recognize the natural heterogeneity of ore deposits, proposing the Geo-Metallurgical Block Model (GMBM), a tool that is based on the Total Rock Concept (TRC), which we will explain previously. We will explain two ways to obtain a GMBM: (1) From systematic geometallurgical logging; (2) From quantitative geometallurgical data. The main objective of a GMBM is to increase recovery of ores at the lowest costs. 2. THE TOTAL ROCK CONCEPT (TRC) As defined by Canchaya (2008), a new perspective in geometallurgy is the Total Rock Concept (TRC). This concept considers rocks as a whole, since the designations of ore and waste rock are circumstantial because they are established according to requirements or needs that change over time. The TRC considers that gangue minerals are the main factors in metallurgical circuits, such as crushing, grinding, flotation, cyanidation, acid leaching, etc. Furthermore, the main problems encountered in metallurgical plants are related to gangue, especially due to its relative abundance, which in some types of ore deposits, particularly low-grade deposits, are largely predominant. For example, in Cu-(Mo and/or Au) porphyritic deposits, ores (chalcopyrite,
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