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This is an optimisation problem. There are several possible ways to solve it.
Dear Clive, thank you for the puzzle!
While reading the statement I started wondering if it relates to the field called "linear programming" (which I never learnt as seemingly it is unrelated to programming as we know it). Though I suspect there are approaches not involving the instruments from this field :)
The problem doesn't require any specialist techniques. Thanks for posting it so promptly.