Mathematical programming (MP) is fundamental to systems engineering and operations management, but has not been widely adopted by mineral processors. The current paper presents an interdisciplinary approach, using MP to incorporate basic notions of mass balancing into an optimisation framework. The optimisation is typically related to economic profitability. Two-and three-product formulas are extended to give formal descriptions of alternate modes of operation, and a global representation of the concentrator. At this global level, the framework may assist plant managers to make tactical decisions based on incoming feed data. The MP framework is demonstrated through sample calculations describing a lead-zinc concentrator.