This paper examines the impact of the time value of money on the
location of mining facilities, as examplified by a central processing plant
serving several mines. Three approaches, the Euclidean-Distance
Approach, the Gravity Centre Approach, and the Rectilinear-Distance
Approach, commonly applied to a single facility location problem were
employed in the study. The objective function in all three models was the
updated value of the following three costs influenced by the processing
plant location and defined within the framework of the continuous model
of value representation and the continuous interest rate convention: I. the costs of transporting the useful mineral from the mines to the
plant, 2. the costs of constructing the transportation links between the mines
and the plant, and 3. the costs of maintaining these links over time. Results of the study show a substantial impact of the time value of
money on both the processing plant optimal location and the opportunity
cost of neglecting the time value of money in the locational
considerations.