Por: Kellyn V. Cristóbal, Héctor A. Velásquez y Deivy W. Ríos, Compañía de Minas Buenaventura.

Abstract

Mining as an economic activity seeks profit and also sustainability over time and in that sense maximizing the extraction of exhaustible resources with the highest possible margin is a constant task.

This paper considers two fundamental concepts to achieve the proposed objective, the minimum cut off following the theories of cut off grades developed by Kenneth Lane and Jean-Michel Rendú and the NPV of the discounted cash flows as an indicator of comparative value.

The process has 3 distinct stages: the first seeks to optimize the method and its variants through a differentiated cut-off; the second uses the concept of marginal increase, and the third, the concept of optimized annual flows for the increase in NPV.

The Yumpag Project, located 19 km from the Uchucchacua Unit, in the district of Yanahuanca, province of Daniel Alcides Carrion, in the department of Pasco, at an elevation of 4,000 m, has been taken as a case study.