Danie G. Krige, until recently Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Republic of South Africa, is a South African Mining Engineer who pioneered the field of geostatistics. The technique of kriging is named after him. His empirical work to evaluate mineral resources [1] was formalised in the 1960s by French engineer Georges Matheron .

Reference

1. Krige, D.G. A statistical approach to some basic mine valuation problems on the Witwatersrand. 1951. J. of Chem., Metal. and Mining Soc. of South Africa, Vol. 52, No. 6, pp. 119-139.