Economic-mathematical modelling of placement of gold recovery factory at the development of the group of territorially converged gold deposits

North Caucasian Mining and Metallurgical Institute (The State Technological University) Vladikavkaz, Russia

^* Corresponding author: eva-ser@mail.ru

Abstract

A small volume of production, combined with the high capital costs and operating costs, is an objective reason of the reduction of investment attractiveness of deposits with reserves of gold <25 tons in the link “supply and demand”. The object of the research is a group of geographically contiguous succinct gold deposits. Economic result of the development of low-volume gold deposits will be fundamentally different if the production capacity of the company would be increased by combining geographically contiguous fields in small-group. The increase in reserves when the field is developed in a group should outpace the reduction of recoverable reserves value. It is shown that the level of production of gold margin depending on the location within the factory gold industrial area varies by no more than 4-14% when changing the transport arm of the deposit base by 20-40 km, it correlated with specific transportation cost k from 1.5 to 3.0 rubles/t · km profitability 30- 40%, and the total cost of an ounce of gold sold U$ 1000-1200. To determine the “center of gravity” of the group for each type of inventory the zone breakeven transport extracted from the feedstock crude concentrate is counted: stocks have in the center of a circle with a radius equal to the maximum possible distance for the transport of crude concentrate to a stationary (bush) gold recovery plant without economic damage to the developer that is recoverable ore value. The place of intersection obtained “break-even” circular zones is the “center of gravity” of the district, where the factory is located.