Maths-based solution will boost mining profits

Featured In: International News

By University of Manchester Wednesday, December 16, 2023

Loading...

16 Dec 2023

A team from the School of Mathematics and Manchester Business School has developed a novel means of helping mining companies accurately calculate the value of their reserves.

The technology provides a solution to an inaccurate methodology used commonly within the mining industry for the past 40 years – and will have a positive impact on helping to increase mining companies’ profits and their longer-term stability.

The cutting-edge techniques used to create the Reserve Valuation and Optimisation Model (RVOM) are a significant step forward from traditional methods, and the team is now seeking a leading commercial partner to join the project to enable RVOM to become the mining industry standard for valuation.

Before developing RVOM, Professor Peter Duck and Dr Paul Johnson from the School of Mathematics, along with Professor Sydney Howell and Dr Geoffrey Evatt from Manchester Business School (MBS) had been working together investigating the valuation and optimal control of stored quantities in the presence of what is known as ‘stochastic uncertainty’, specialising in model formulation and partial differential equation (PDE)-based numerical schemes.

The team is applying these powerful techniques to a number of problems, including optimal temperature control, the optimal trading and storage of wind power and the valuation of mortgage-backed financial securities; prior to RVOM the Team had not studied finite natural resources.

Work on the RVOM began in earnest in 2008, when a generic model for valuing a finite resource was needed in relation to Uranium stocks, for a UK government sponsored investigation into the sustainability of nuclear power.

Since much of the team’s research over the past few years had been in logically similar problems, they already possessed the necessary set of skills with which to tackle the resource valuation problem.

Prof Peter Duck, who is Head of The School of Mathematics, said: “Being able to make fast and accurate valuations of reserves in the presence of economic and geological uncertainty is of critical importance to mining companies.

“RVOM draws upon recent advances in financial mathematics, to make faster and more accurate reserve valuations than before. It can achieve this in the presence of numerous uncertainties, such as price fluctuations and ore grade uncertainty, and can even set the optimal processing rules a mining company should use.”

The University of Manchester Intellectual Property Ltd (UMIP) – the commercialization arm of The University of Manchester – is helping the team explore the industrial and commercial potential of the solution.

Notes for editors

For more information please contact Alex Waddington, Media Relations Officer, The University of Manchester, Tel 0161 275 8387.

SOURCE

Join the Discussion
Rate Article: Average 0 out of 5
register or log in to comment on this article!

0 Comments

Add Comment

Text Only 2000 character limit

Page 1 of 1

Research Exchange

Calibration Free Analysis to Measure the Concentration of Active Proteins

Nov 23

An SPR-based method, Calibration Free Concentration Analysis can be used to accurately determine the concentration of active protein in a sample, relating to the specific binding activity of the protein, and without the need for a standard.

Advances in EMCCD Technology: Making Imaging Less Arbitrary

Nov 16

Recent advances in EMCCD technology have solved the problem of non-standardized measurement units by using the photoelectron to standardize imaging experiments.

10 Tips for Successful Sample Concentration and Buffer Exchange

Nov 6

Centrifugal devices with ultrafiltration (UF) membrane can solve common problems researchers face when working with proteins.

Meeting the Challenges of Long-term Time-lapse Imaging

Oct 26

Recent technological developments in the sequence capture of cellular events through a light microscope can be combined to image multiple independent experiments automatically, with many advantages.

Size-Exclusion Chromatography for Purification of Biomolecules

Dec 2

Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) is a popular method to separate biomolecules based on their size. Primarily, it is applied to the separation of biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids, i.e. water-soluble polymers.

Improving Separation During Electrophoresis

Dec 2

SeparateIT gels represent a novel gel matrix for DNA electrophoresis. Gel polymers are arranged in a conceptually different way, in accordance with a new theoretical model of gel electrophoresis.

Improving Quality of ELISA

Dec 2

Using ready-to-use ELISA kits from manufacturers is easy and convenient. Sometimes however, home-made ELISA is required because there is no kit available with the right antibodies or the characteristics of the available kits such as their limits of detection are not appropriate.

Nucleic Acid Decontamination with the ExitusPlus Technology

Dec 2

Using new methods that detect extremely low levels of DNA molecules, researchers investigated the molecular mechanism of action of various commercially available DNA decontamination reagents. They found that when using high concentrations of DNA and short incubation times, none of the conventional reagents destroyed DNA molecules efficiently, despite their corrosive or even toxic properties.

Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity in a Drosophila Memory Mutant

Attention Deficit & Hyperactivity in a Drosophila Memory Mutant

Nov 9

Action selection is modulated by external stimuli either directly or via memory retrieval. In a constantly changing environment, animals have evolved attention-like processes to effectively filter the incoming sensory stream. These attention-like processes, in turn, are modulated by memory. The neurobiological nature of how attention, action selection and memory are inter-connected is unknown. We describe here new phenotypes of the memory mutant radish in the fruit fly Drosophila.

Mechanisms of plasticity in simple taxis behaviors in Drosophila

Nov 8

Like the proverbial moth drawn to the candle flame, the fruit fly Drosophila also stereotypically approaches light sources. This positive phototaxis is the archetypal example of hard-wired input-output behaviors.

Live cell imaging of mutant and wild-type GABA-A receptor trafficking using a novel reporter protein

Nov 8

Efficient signaling in the brain requires precise regulation and targeting of cell surface ion-channels. Mutations in these channels associated with inherited diseases can cause improper targeting and reduced surface expression.

ADP-Glo™: An Ideal Approach to Monitor the Activity of Protein Kinases and Beyond

Oct 16

Because of its versatility (alltypesofsubstrates), robustness (Z’>0.8), rapidperformance, and its ease of use, the luminescence based Kinase Glo® assay platform has gained wide acceptance in many drug screening programs for protein kinase inhibitors.

PKA-Mediated Golgi Remodeling During cAMP Signal Transmission.

22 hours ago

Cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) is part of the set of signaling proteins that are stably associated to the cytosolic surface of Golgi membranes in mammalian cells. In principle, Golgi-associated PKA could participate in either signal transduction events...

Depression, traumatic stress and interleukin-6.

23 hours ago

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence indicates that various types of interactions between nervous and immune system are important in pathogenesis of depression. These findings show that a significant role in developing depression play pro-inflammatory cytokines that may mediate its...

A short duration of untreated illness (DUI) improves response outcomes in first-depressive episodes.

23 hours ago

BACKGROUND: Few studies have addressed the implication of the duration of untreated illness (DUI) on the clinical outcome of mood disorders. Although not focusing on DUI, previous findings suggest that the longer it takes to start appropriate treatment, the worse will be the...

TSH Receptor and Thyroid-Specific Gene Expression in Human Skin.

Dec 18

Experimental evidence suggests that in autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITDs) the skin is a target of autoantibodies against thyroid-specific antigens; however, the role of these autoantibodies in skin alterations remains unclear. To gain insight into the function of nominally...

Prokariotic Cell Collection in Denmark

Nov 6

I would like to know about a prokariotic cell collection in Denmark. Is there a cell bank in this country? I need a Lactobacillus strain for a fermentation assay and this information about the bank is very helpful for me.

Request for Entries

Oct 16

Ask the Experts is your chance to get the answers to questions on applications, materials, methods, processes, and technologies. Email you question to bst_web@advantagemedia.com, and the editors of Bioscience Technology will find an appropriate expert to answer it. Watch this space in the future to see the questions your colleagues are posting.

STAY INFORMED: SUBSCRIBE TO

Magazine and E-mail Newsletters

Loading...
E-mail:   

MULTIMEDIA

Video:

Neuroscience Diseases of The Brain and How The Mind Emerges

Neuroscience Diseases of The Brain and How The Mind Emerges

Nov 8

Dennis Choi, director of Emory Universitys Neuroscience Center, is renowned for his groundbreaking research on brain and spinal cord injury.

Podcasts:

Allen Institute for Brain Research

Allen Institute for Brain Research

Oct 14

Discussed in this interview are both the mouse brain project and the human cortex project with an emphasis on the importance of these projects to neuroscience research.