Geological and economical (cost) valuation of non-ferrous and rare metals in coal fields and useful coproducts

The intensive mining operations underway in both Russia and the rest of the world are leading to a depletion of reserves and a reduction in the quality of raw minerals. Furthermore, they aggravate the geological, economic and geographical conditions of the deposits. As a result, an exhaustion of balanced deposits of many non-ferrous and rare metals (lead, zinc, titan, zirconium, scandium, et cetera) is being observed. In this regard, there is a deficit of the raw minerals needed for non-ferrous metallurgy, as well as for other industries (nuclear, electronic, aviation, space, et cetera). The planned growth in production in the Russian Federation signifies the pressing challenge of supplying scarce metals to the industry and assumes an increase in efforts in the complex usage of ores, as well as in the exploitation of technogenic deposits. Therefore, there is the ernerging problern of irn-proving the econornic assessrnent of cornplex and technogenic deposits. A cornprehensive geological and econornic assessrnent of deposits based on the calculation of the rnain and valuable incidental cornponents significantly increases the econornic potential of the prospected reserves and allows thern to be efficiently developed, as well as prornoting the exploitation of rnargin-ally profitable deposits. Nevertheless, a cornprehensive assessrnent of useful incidental cornponents is not always perforrned, or is perforrned incornpletely during deposit exploration. A sufficient volurne of inforrnation has been gathered so far, which allows us to speak in favour of future uses of rnany incidental rninerals and valuable cornponents, or the ones encountered during the extraction of the rnain rninerals or taken frorn durnps, id est frorn technogenic deposits. One of the perspective sources of rnetals are coals frorn the Kuznetsk Basin, which contain elevated concentrations of such valuable rnetals as vanadiurn, tungsten, galliurn, gerrnaniurn, scandiurn, tita-niurn, zirconiurn, and yttriurn. The following criteria can be used as a geological and econornic assessrnent of non-ferrous and rare rnetal reserves contained in coals and their ash-slag wastes. 1. Balanced reserves - a nurnber of rnetals in coals and coal ashes are evaluated based on category P , after geological prospecting and exploration they rnay be evaluated based on categories C and C . 2. Industrial, highly profitable technologies that allow for a cornprehensive and efficient approach to maximizing environrnentally conscious rnetal extraction frorn waste. 3. Econornic criterion - prices, supply and dernand, terns of sales, et cetera - unstable prices and sales volurnes, a rise in prices can be speculative in nature, entry into the rnetal rnarket is cornplicated and calls for risk assessrnent and governrnent support. As a whole, the geological and econornic (cost) assessrnent should include the following steps: the geological and econornic assessrnent of a deposit (1 - 3); the econornic (cost) assessrnent of the deposit developrnent project (4 - 9); and an econornic assessrnent of the project with regard to future region's developrnent (10 - 12). 1. Evaluation of the contents valuable rnetals in coals by layer and in the ash-slag waste of coals. 2. Evaluation of quantitative criteria (rnetal reserves/resources, industrial, highly profitable technologies of rnetal extraction, prices and dernand). 3. Evaluation of the econornic feasibility of rnetal extraction frorn coals and ashes versus ore fields (defined by C^n). 4. A selection of optirnal variants for rnetal extraction (object and rnethod of extraction - differential rent I and II) on the basis of average annual incorne calculations with regard to project risks. 5. Defining project indicators with case studies of analagous projects or direct calculations, a feasibility study of the project. 6. Evaluation of dornestic and foreign rnetal rnarkets (dernand/supply, rnarket capacity, estirnated and target pricing of rnetal). 7. Assessrnent of cornrnercial and financial project risks. 8. Calculation of integrated cost efficiency or net incorne, profitability index, internal rate of return, payback period. 9. Carrying out a SWOT-analysis (evaluation of external opportunities and threats to the project, strengths and weaknesses of a firrn, and strategy forrnulation), and also an assessrnent of project stability (for exarnple, a curnulative rnethod by three variants - optirnistic, basic and pessirnistic). 10. Evaluation of the total econornic effect achieved by the irnplernentation of regional project as the surn of the econornic, ecological, social and indirect effects. 11. Evaluation of the efficiency of rnetal extraction frorn coals and ash-slag waste versus ore fields (evaluation of operational and capital expenditures, outputs as per the entire process flow frorn production of ore or processing of coals/waste to extracting rnetals). 12. Optirnisation of the cornprehensive usage of valuable non-ferrous and rare rnetals in specific direction with the calculation of the perspective social and econornic developrnent of a region.

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