Abstract
As a result of the exploitation of ore deposits, in addition to the main elements, the accompanying elements are also partially recovered. Some of them increase the profitability of exploitation, while others reduce it because they hinder the recovery of the main elements and thus increase the costs of the recovery process. A comprehensive economic calculation to assess the profitability of ore mining depends on an appropriately accurate estimation of the resources of both the main and associated elements. This issue was analyzed with the example of the Cu-Ag Rudna ore deposit (LGCD, Poland). The subject of the assessment was the resources prediction accuracy of the main element (Cu) and four (4) accompanying elements (Co, Ni, Pb, and V) using geostatistical estimation method, in particular the ordinary kriging after the estimation of the relative variograms for describing the spatial variability structures of elements abundance. It was found that the standard kriging errors (deviations) in accompanying elements resources that are scheduled for exploitation within a one-year period in some parts of deposits are drastically greater (2 to 5 times) than the estimation errors of the main element resources. This is due to the sparse sampling pattern for their determinations and/or the high variability (among others nugget effect) of their abundance. In this situation, without additional sampling and a denser sampling pattern, the possibilities of a reliable assessment of the influence of accompanying elements on the economic consequences of exploitation are very limited.
Highlights
The mining of Cu and Ag ores in the Legnica-Głogów Copper District (LGCD) (SW Poland, Fore-Sudetic Monocline) is carried out by KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. in six deposits (Figure 1)
The relative variability of the abundance of elements expressed by the coefficient of variation (CV) is highly variable and depends on the studied element (Table 3)
The accuracy of the estimates of the resources of accompanying elements in CuAg ore deposits has not been thoroughly studied. This is probably due to the structure of the sales value of recovered metals, where the share of accompanying elements is generally low
Summary
The mining of Cu and Ag ores in the Legnica-Głogów Copper District (LGCD) (SW Poland, Fore-Sudetic Monocline) is carried out by KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. in six deposits (Figure 1). KGHM Polska Miedz S.A. is one of the world’s leading producers of silver and copper. 449 thousand tons of metallic copper and 1455 tons of silver were mined in 2019 [2]. The Cu-Ag ore deposits of the LGCD are rich in accompanying (secondary) elements, including Pb, Zn, Cd, Ni, Co, Fe, Au, Pt, Pd, V, Hg, Sn, Ge, U, Th, Mo, Re (heavy metals), S, Se, Ba, and F (non-metallic elements), and As, Sb, and Bi (elements with intermediate properties) [3].
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