There are many sources to increase value in an integrated mining–metallurgy context. The optimal strategy for concentration of minerals from the ore is one of these sources. The elements of mining-metallurgy operations from resources, infrastructure, mining site, processing, and metallurgy are mutually dependent, and reinforce and interact positively with each other to generate a combined value greater than the sum of their individual contributions. Bioleaching technology is an alternative processing technology for treatment of low-grade sulphide ore, and its application contributes to the achievement of better economic results than the conventional pyrometallurgical technology. This work presents the application of bioleaching technology in laboratory conditions for metal extraction from the polymetallic deposit Tenka in East Serbia, belonging to the company Serbia Zijin Bor Copper Doo (formerly the Mining Smelter Basin Bor Group). Bioleaching of sulphide polymetallic raw material is performed by chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms. Applying the bioleaching technology, the achieved recoveries of metals from the polymetallic ore are as follows: Cu 90%, Au 90%, Ag 80%, Zn 72% and Pb 90%. The calculated values for Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) are $ 21.927 million and 12.55%, respectively.

As the mine planning is one of the most complicated steps, which depends on a lot of factors as geology, economy etc., consequently, the decision-making process is difficult, due to the existence of a lot of factors for choosing the optimal mining system. In this paper, the method and the result...

Mining is the process of extracting a naturally occurring material from the earth to derive a profit. Whether the company make a profit or not depends on many economic parameters, among which the most important are the metal prices on the world market and realized operating costs in the process of exploitation. This work presents the influence of copper price change and value of operating costs on the generated cash flows, i.e. profit, in the case of the open pit South Mining District, which operates within the Copper Mine Majdanpek, Serbia.

In today’s financial and environmental climate, it is imperative to develop the robust projects with good economics. Successful business in conditions of limited resources is impossible without analyzing all the technical and economic parameters and scenarios of sustainable operation. In this sense, it requires the application of mathematical algorithms implemented in the contemporary software tools able to efficiently provide the effective troubleshooting of design in complex conditions of modern mining. This paper, an example of the open pit South Mining District Majdanpek, shows the importance of planning and design the ore exploitation in achieving the maximum net present value (NPV).

This paper presents the development and validation of five different soft computing methods for flotation performance prediction: (1) two models based on fuzzy logic (Mamdani and Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy inference system) and (2) three models based on artificial neural networks. Copper content in the ore feed, collector dosage in the rougher and the scavenger flotation circuits, slurry pH in the rougher flotation circuit and frother consumption were selected as input parameters to estimate the copper grade and recovery of final concentrate, as well as the copper content in the final tailings of the flotation plant. The training and evaluation of the proposed models were performed on the basis of real process data collected by the multiannual monitoring of industrial flotation plant operation in “Veliki Krivelj Mine”. The results showed that the proposed soft computing-based models well describe the behavior of the industrial flotation plant in a wide range of circumstances. Among the proposed algorithms, artificial neural networks gave the most accurate predictions for the final copper concentrate grade and recovery (R² = 0.98 and R² = 0.99, respectively) and copper content in final tailings (R² = 0.87). At some points, fuzzy logic models are almost equally efficient, but artificial neural networks had lower values for all error functions.

Defining the pushbacks at the open pit is one of the most important planning activities. Designing the pushbacks is the first step in a long-term planning of production at the open pit where the production is planned. Despite the existence of a large number of software, used for different mathematical algorithms for optimization the open pits, a role of mining engineers is still a key one in development the mining plans. The work presents the results of conducted impact analysis of selection the optimum pushbacks on the project economy. Based on the results, the importance of correct selection of pushbacks can be concluded for achieving the basic goal of the mining operation - the Net Present Value Maximization (NPV).