Effectiveness evaluation of mining as a natural and technical system with a decrease in the content of a useful component of the ore-raw material base

Abstract

Mining is characterized by increasingly intensive use of natural resources, increasing waste and environmental degradation. These problems are compounded by the fact that almost all mining enterprises are experiencing intensive depletion of mineral reserves. The impact of a decrease in the content of a useful component in a mineral, as well as losses and dilution during its extraction on the prospects for the development of mining can be estimated by calculating the quantity of finished products and the amount of waste obtained from the extracted mineral, as well as the intensity of production of finished products and waste per unit of time. With a decrease in the content of the useful component, the quantity of finished products per conventional unit of rock mass decreases, and the amount of waste increases. Losses and dilution reduce the content of the useful component in the mineral. We will analyze these processes and their consequences by the method of material balances. By the material balances of mining, we take the equity between the amounts of substance at the “inputs” and “outputs” of the object before and after the transformations are carried out in it, i.e. from the processes of extraction the rock mass from the bowels to obtaining the finished product. Material balances of production facilities are often also called “eco-balances”, thereby emphasizing the special role of this method in assessing environmental pollution by a production facility. From the rock mass – mineral deposits, in the process of its extraction, the following components are formed: overburden rocks and minerals. The overburden rocks are stored in dumps, and the minerals are supplied for further processing and treatment. In the treatment process, we get the finished product and the enrichment tails, which are a waste of mining. Based on the material balance method, a methodology has been developed for the economic evaluation of the efficiency of mining by traditional methods (open-cut or underground), which makes it possible to predict the efficiency of mining development and assess the reasonability of using traditional mining technologies. With a certain value of the content of the useful component, mining by traditional methods becomes unprofitable.