National University of Science and Technology–MISIS, Moscow, Russia:

V. D. Gorbacheva, Post-Graduate Student
S. V. Chmykhalova, Associate Professor, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, tchmy@mail.ru

The mining industry faces new challenges and problems, the solution of which falls on the processing industry. This also applies to the enrichment of copper–nickel ores of the Talnakh ore node, which successfully produces high-quality products. The authors discuss a steady decline in the quality of copper–nickel ores of the Talnakh deposit, and fluctuations in their quality. The article presents the data on the mineral resources and reserves at the Talnakh ore node in 2008–2021 as comparted with the available data of 1998. The theoretical review highlights main types of commercial ores and their characteristics, as well as the operating mines at the deposit. The purpose of this study is to analyze the technological parameters of the ore reserves at the deposit, and to identify interrelated measures aimed at prevention of ore quality degradation. According to the analysis of the obtained technological parameters, a steady trend of a decrease in the content of copper and nickel in the extracted ore has been determined, which, accordingly, leads to a requirement to increase production volumes, update technical capacities of processing plants, and to buildup consumption of resources at the stages of mining and concentration. The analysis shows a decrease in the useful component content in the ore: copper—by 1.93 % in 2021 as compared to 2008 and, accordingly, nickel—by 1.1 %. At the same time, tailings contain less copper and nickel, which is a good result, indicating an increase in the extraction factor. The obtained results allowed proposing mathematical models for predicting the reduction of useful components in ore depending on the year, provided that the volume of production was constant. Thus, as a result of the conducted research, it was recommended to consider the introduction of comprehensive ore quality control at all production and management stages.

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