A Zambian based copper mining conglomerate is required to process a large number of cathodes

from the Copperbelt University Smelter in Kitwe. Two types of ore are received at the CBU

smelter namely, Nchanga Ore and Nampundwe Ore. Nchanga Ore requires six bags of silica

and consumes three megawatts of electricity. Nampundwe Ore requires eight silica bags and

consumes two megawatts of electricity. The copper ore is to be processed as a batch and thus

a suitable mixture of the two dierent ore types should be selected. The total silica bags and

electricity available for each batch are 48 bags and 60 megawatts respectively. The CBU smelter

makes three times as much money for processing Nchanga Ore as for processing Nampundwe

Ore.

(a) (10 points) Using the above information, formulate, but do not solve, a linear programming

problem to determine a suitable mixture of ore to be run as a processing batch that will

maximize income at the CBU smelter.

(b) (15 points) Use the Simplex algorithm to solve the linear programming formulation from

(a).