# Assessing of Losses and Dilution Impact on the Cost Chain: Case Study of Gold Ore Deposits
## 5 Conclusions  
The goal of this research was to develop a methodological approach to the assessment of the influence that engineering factors exert on the production chain of costing from ore extraction to its processing. The following objectives were assigned in the study:  
* theoretical analysis and identification of strengths and weaknesses of the mine-to-mill concept, justification of the absence of thoroughly developed methodological foundations for the efficiency assessment of ore extraction parameter control;development of guidelines for the assessment of how losses and dilution indicators influence the costing chain from ore extraction to its processing;
* practical evaluation of the guidelines for the case of gold ore deposits. Based on the formulated objectives, the research justifies:
* the principle of economic assessment, based on continuous planning, analysis, and control of the production process from the stage of ore extraction to the treatment of the mineral product (mine-to-mill);
* the method of economic assessment as a compilation of factor analysis and value engineering, which takes into account the economy of operating costs due to variation of losses and dilution parameters throughout the whole production chain;
* results of economic assessment of how losses and dilution impact the indicators of operating costs (in a case study of the group of gold ore deposits), manifested as changes in the gold grade of the extracted rock mass, changes in the amounts of ore blending and transportation, decrease in the amount of ore processing. The paper proves that changes in the structure of losses and dilution define the ratio between the amounts of production and overburden removal, as well as value of average grade in the ore, which affect functioning of the entire production chain, including the stages of ore transportation, blending (stacking) and processing. Estimation of the average grade of the valuable component includes calculation of specific metal amounts, based on the structure of total reserves, as well as comparison between the grade and yield of metal due to variations in the indicators of losses and dilution. The main results of empirical study show that a decrease in the losses of mineral product will lead to variation in the amount of ore processing due to changes in the structure of ore inventory. Changes in the values of ore losses and dilution (3.1% losses and 17% dilution under base-case scenario; 2.1% losses and 13.0% dilution under the project scenario) result in a 30 ton decrease in the amounts of processed ore. Under the project scenario, the economic effect takes place due to economy of operating costs, as regards semi-variable costs of ore processing. The cost of ore transportation is defined as a sum of tariffs across the stages of ore transition from the quarries to the intermediate stockpile and GPP. From a premise of increasing gold grade in the ore, transported from the quarry and the intermediate stockpile, it is assumed that the amounts of ore blending, stacking and partial rehandling operations will decrease. Estimation of economic efficiency is presented as an assessment of workspace susceptibility of the operating costs economy, caused by implementation of the project on orebody outlines adjustment. Analysis of project susceptibility indicators demonstrates that provided that amounts of extracted and transported ore fluctuate between 5% and 30%, project efficiency due to reduced annual workspace of ore blending and loading can vary in the range of 191.25-1147.58. Conceptualization, M.M. and O.M. ; methodology, M.M. and O.M. ; software, M.M. and O.M. ; validation, M.M. and O.M. and R.W. ; formal analysis, M.M. and O.M. ; investigation, M.M. and O.M. and R.W. ; resources, M.M. and O.M. ; writing--original draft preparation, M.M. and O.M. ; writing--review and editing, R.W. ; visualization, M.M. and O.M. ; supervision, R.W. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research received no external funding. Not applicable.