# Assessing of Losses and Dilution Impact on the Cost Chain: Case Study of Gold Ore Deposits
## 1 Introduction
### Quality Control: Losses, Dilution, Average Grade of the Valuable Component  
Gold ore mining is very beneficial from an economic point of view. However, in order to maximize profits, recovery of products needs optimization [42]. A very important factor in this process is the impact of particular ore type and its characteristics on the head grade [43]. In gold processing, all mining and processing operations involve series of sequential stages. Those stages should be complementary, and one operation is affecting another one. To achieve optimization of the whole process, it is not sufficient to optimize each function separately. The whole process of ore extraction should be taken into consideration. We can distinguish two types of mine-to-mill integration. One is operational and the second one is physical [44]. Operational integration concentrates on:  
* use of drill and shovel technologies to monitor processes,
* optimization of blast fragmentation,
* optimization of communition processes,
* improvement of monitoring in the factory, especially of the handling system in the pit and ore. Physical integration concentrates on:  
* fragment size classification,
* improvements of grade control,
* sorting,
* improvement of mill feed grades. At present, it is not easy to find detailed information on ore losses and dilution in the mines worldwide, especially in case of gold mines. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l} \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Strengths/Benefits**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Weaknesses/Problems**} \\ \hline \(\checkmark\) & Productivity benefits & & \\ \(\checkmark\) & Maximization of production/performance improvement & & \\ \(\checkmark\) & Minimization of the cost per tone & & \\ \(\checkmark\) & Establishment of the integrated mining strategy adjusted & \(\checkmark\) & Over-simplification of the concept \\  & to organization & \(\checkmark\) & Organization not increase blast intensity \\ \(\checkmark\) & Potential for optimization of blasting fragmentation & \(\checkmark\) & Problems with concept’s reconciliation over longer period \\ \(\checkmark\) & Energy benefits & & of times \\ \(\checkmark\) & Achievement of substantial savings & \(\checkmark\) & Incorrectness in the application of resource modeling \\ \(\checkmark\) & Downstream processing performance & & methods \\ \(\checkmark\) & Introduction of measurement & & \\ \(\checkmark\) & Throughput forecasting and geometallurgical modeling & & \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Strengths/benefits and weaknesses/problems of mine-to-mill concept implementation. Sources: [4; 5; 35; 36; 37; 38; 45; 46; 47; 48; 49; 50; 51; 52; 53; 54; 55; 56; 57; 58; 59; 60; 61; 62; 63; 64; 65; 66; 67; 68; 69; 70; 71; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 80; 81; 8  
Figure 1 demonstrates a theoretical model of mine-to-mill integration for a gold mine based on the Xingwana concept [45]. In this model, three main components of the integration of mine-to-mill can be distinguished: fragmentation, ore loss and dilution. Their main characteristics are described in Table 2.  
Modern studies of assessing the impact of losses and dilution on the economic efficiency of mining companies are focused on defining technological tasks and do not consider in its entirety the possibility of reducing costs along the technological chain. One of the methodologies used in the process is the Process Integration and Optimisation (PIO) methodology, developed in Metso Minerals Process technology Asia-Pacific. This methodology is based on the following steps [54]:  
* Delineation and characterization of main domains, based on rock strength and structure. At this stage an organization can use many measurement techniques, which are statistically representative.