The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
Abstract
Similar to the case of any other business venture, the activities of
mining industries are profit-oriented. Nothing will stop successful
businesses in their quest for new localities to be prospected for
minerals of their choice, because the useful economic life of any
mine is limited. Before starting the process of land acquisition, it is
important for any mining company to be able to forecast the
profitability of the venture.
The focus of this paper has been on the prospects of success,
concerning the case of the opencast extraction of aggregates for
construction. A set of 70 successful and loss-making quarries was
subjected to investigation. An international company owns the
quarries, which are located in seven European countries. The
method of discriminate analysis provided the criteria for assessing
future economic performance. The same criteria served the purpose
of classifying other quarries belonging to the company.Web of Science112225525