Abstract
The aim of this work is to develop and verify a rationalized approach to the parameters for finalizing industrial coal reserves at coal mining enterprises. The research was conducted in several stages. The first stage involved determining the optimal configuration of productive flows depending on the production situation. The second stage, based on the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP method), involved defining the optimal strategy for finalizing industrial reserves.The rationalization of coal mining enterprise parameters consists in substantiating the configuration of productive flows and applying the AHP method to select a strategy for finalizing industrial reserves. The use of the Cobb-Douglas function allows for modeling the technical and economic indicators of a mine's operations under various initial mining and geological conditions and coal quality parameters.Based on the modeling of productive flow configurations, rational volumes of coal extraction were determined under different production scenarios. It was established that coal ash content is of primary importance when choosing a strategy for finalizing industrial reserves. If the coal's ash content is less than 20%, the most effective scenario is to maximize coal extraction. For ash content indicators of 20–50%, the most effective scenario is the processing and utilization of coal mining waste and the maintenance of coal extraction. The utilization of methane and the treatment of wastewater at enterprises that are finalizing industrial reserves are not justified.The application of the AHP method confirmed the hypothesis that the optimal strategy for finalizing industrial coal reserves at coal mining enterprises is to maximize the volume of waste rock processing. The scenario that involves extracting rare-earth materials from the rock proved to be the least optimal. The obtained results made it possible to formulate recommendations regarding the directions for supporting the viability of low-power coal mining enterprises at the stage of finalizing industrial reserves, as well as to determine the most optimal strategy for mineral extraction.