Nurassyl Battalgazy completed his Master's degree at the School of Mining and Geosciences, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan.
Nurassyl's PhD thesis topic relates to Geostatistical Modelling of Complex Orebodies. One of the problems in complex orebodies is inaccurate construction of block models, which implicitly leads to the biased evaluation of mineral resources, significantly impacting on further activities of a mining project. Therefore, the aim of Nurassyl's research will focus on advanced methods to construct more accurate block models of the geo-domains, particularly in complex orebodies.
During Nurassyl's Master's degree, he was involved in research and industrial projects as a research assistant, with the aim to develop and improve the algorithms of modeling, to enable the handling of multivariate complexities such as non-linearity, heteroscedasticity, and other geological constraints for Geometallurgical modeling purposes. The industrial project with a local mining company aimed to construct the block model of coal deposit located in Kazakhstan by taking into consideration ash and iron contents. This type of industrial project required not only technical skills but also soft skills, giving Nurassyl valuable experience.
Participating in different conferences such as 25th World Mining Congress (WMC), Kazakhstan, and the Complex Orebodies 2018 Conference in Brisbane, both of which brought together experts and scientists from different countries working in the field of developing solid mineral deposits, positively affected Nurassyl's knowledge, academic development, and networking with industry. Following conversations with experts in geostatistics and geology at these conferences, Nurassyl was motivated and encouraged to continue to broaden his knowledge and he cannot imagine a better place to undertake a PhD than at UQ's Sustainable Minerals Institute.