Abstract <p>As a result of studying the regularities of energy transfer between the surface of a treated part and a polishing disperse system of copper metaborate micro- and nanopowders in a disperse medium in the form of kerosene or water, it has been established that the treated material removal rate, polishing powder wear rate, and polished surface roughness parameters grow with a decrease in transfer energy to evidence that the regularities of polishing the optical surfaces of parts from metal and non-metal materials are similar. It has been shown that the transfer energy depends on the spectral separation between a treated material and copper metaborate and the separation by dielectric permittivity between a treated material, a polishing powder, and a disperse medium and is determined by their ratio. The effect of the dielectric permittivity of a disperse medium on the polishing characteristics of optical components from copper and aluminum has been studied to demonstrate that this ratio may be a criterion for the efficiency of energy transfer from polishing powder particles to a treated surface, as it provides the possibility to determine the ratio of the treated material removal rate to the polishing powder wear rate, which is higher than unity when kerosene is used as a disperse medium, and lower than unity when the disperse medium is water. In addition, it has been shown that the theoretically calculated values of the treated material removal rate for the polishing of copper and aluminum by disperse systems of copper micro- and nanopowders with a disperse medium of kerosene or water are in good agreement with experimental polishing performance data with a deviation of 2–7%.</p>