The average grades of copper mines are dropped by extracting high grade copper ores. Based on the conducted studies in the mine field, the uncertainty of economic calculations and the insufficiency of initial information is observed. This matter has drawn considerations to processing methods which not only extracts low grade copper ores but also decreases adverse environmental impacts. In this research, an optimum cut-off grades modelis developed with the objective function of Net Present Value (NPV) maximization. The costs of the processing methods are also involved in the model. In consequence, an optimization algorithm was presented to calculate and evaluate both the maximum NPV and the optimum cut-off grades. Since the selling price of the final product has always been considered as one of the major risks in the economic calculations and designing of the mines, it was included in the modeling of the price prediction algorithm. The results of the algorithm performance demonstrated that the cost of the lost opportunity and the prediction of the selling price are regarded as two main factors directed into diminishing most of the cut-off grades in the last years of the mines’ production.

Various approaches have been introduced over the years to evaluate information in the expected utility framework. This paper analyzes the relationship between the degree of risk aversion and the selling price of information in a lottery setting with two actions. We show that the initial decision on the lottery as well as the attitude of the decision maker towards risk as a function of the initial wealth level are critical to characterizing this relationship. When the initial decision is to reject, a non-decreasingly risk averse decision maker asks for a higher selling price as he gets less risk averse. Conversely, when the initial decision is to accept, non-increasingly risk averse decision makers ask a higher selling price as they get more risk averse if information is collected on bounded lotteries. We also show that the assumption of the lower bound for lotteries can be relaxed for the quadratic utility family.

This paper defines the concept of simple strategy and introduces three kinds of simple strategies: wealth-invariant, scale-invariant and "wealthier-accept more". For three commonly used utility function families: CARA, CRRA and DARA equivalent characterizations are obtained in terms of the corresponding simple strategy, in terms of the buying and selling price properties, and in terms of the utility function properties as expressed by Cauchy functional equations. Moreover, an extension of famous Pratt (1964) theorem is proved which involves buying price for a lottery as an alternative measure of comparative risk aversion. Additionally a number of propositions on both selling and buying price for a lottery and CRRA utility class are proved.