134 Open pit mine planning and design Fundamentals i- “| i i- wi * 0 = "Fons ied ly (1000) Figure 2.12. Mine/mill project eaptal costs a function of milling ate (O'Hara, 1980). 2.4.5 The updated O'Hara cost estimator Introduction Included in the 2nd edition of the SME Mining Engineers Handbook (Hartman, 1992), is an updated chapter on ‘Costs & Cost Estimation’, prepared by O'Hara and Suboleski (1992). They cover the costs associated with both open pit and underground mining. This section presents material extracted from their paper. The presentation, however, is organized somewhat differently from theirs. All of the costs are expressed in U.S, dollars appropriate forthe third quarter of 1988. Pits may vary greatly in shape, size, and pit slope, especially in mountainous areas or where the ore and/or waste rock varies greatly in competence. The typical open pit mine in North America produces about 43,000 tpd (39 kv/day) of ore and waste from a pit depth ‘of about 400 to 500ft (120 to 150m), with an oval shaped periphery 2200 ft (670 m) wide and 4700 t (1430 m) long. Pit benches are typically 40 ft (12m) high, and overall pit slope (excluding roads) is about 57° in pits with competent rock, and 44” in pits with oxidized or altered rock, with in-pit haulage road gradients averaging 9%, ‘The formulas given for equipment sizing, preproduction stripping, and maintenance facilitica presume that the shape and type of open pit is similar, except in daily tonnage, to the ‘typical’ open pit Daily tonnage the most important factor affecting costs is the size of the mine, primary crusher, and processing plant as expressed in terms of the tons of material handled per day of operation. ‘To simplify the discussion the following terms will be introduced: T =tons of ore milled/day T, =tons of ore minediday T= tons of waste mined/day , = tons of ore passing the primary crusher/day Ty=To + Te = total material minedldayMining revenues and costs 135 In this estimator it is assumed that the mill operates three 8-hour shifts per day and 7 days/week irregardless ofthe shifts worked by the open pit. Many open pit mines oper- ate 7 days/week, but others may operate only 5. In the case of a 5 day/week mining operation, 31, =0717, 246) ‘The cost guides in this section are based upon this assumption thatthe mill capacity is 71% of the daily mined ore tonnage, ‘The crushing plant may operate 5, 6, or 7 days/week, depending on the mine schedule and whether or not there is adequate fine ore storage capacity to keep the mill supplied with fre when the crusher is shut down for repairs or regular maintenance. It is assumed that the crushing plant has the same daily capacity as the mine, but will ‘work 6 days/week to ensure that the mill will be supplied with crushed ore if the fine ore bins have insufficient capacity to keep the mill supplied with ore dusing the wo-day sine shutdown, Personnel nunbers Tt may seem somewhat unusual to begin the cost discussion with personnel, but their pro- ductivity is extremely important tothe profitability of an operation and their compensation isa major cost item. ‘The number of mine personne! Nop required in open pit mines using shovels and trucks for loading and hauling the ore may be estimated from the following formulas: 0.034798 for hard rock “”— | 0.02479" for competent soft rock am ‘The number personne! Nyy tequited to operate mills treating T tons of low-grade ore may be estimated from the following formulas: 5.90T®? for cyanidation of precious metal ores 5.707"? for flotation of low-grade base metal ores (2.48) 7.20T° for gravity concentration of iron ores. Nin ‘The mill crew size (which includes those involved in crushing and/or grinding as well as beneficiation) as a function of process type and mill rate is shown in Figure 2.13. ‘The numberof service personnel N,, required for open pits mining low grade ore may be estimated as a percentage ofthe total mine and mill personnel as shown below: Nyy = 25:44 of (Nop + Nut) 249) ‘The number of administrative and technical personnel Na requited for a mining and milling plant may be estimated as a percentage ofthe total required for mining, milling, and services: Nog = 11% Of (Nop + Net + Nos) 2.50) It should be noted that the formulas do not include the personnel required for smelters, refineries, mine townsite services, concentrate transport, or offsite head offices, since these services may not be required for many mine projects. Whenever these services can be136 Open pit mine planning and design: Fundamentals 200 109) Size of mill crow "000 2000 4000 6000 8000 ——*10,000 “Tons per day milled Figure 2.13, Mill erew size versus mill process and size (O'Hara & Suboleski, 1992). financially justified for the mine project circumstances, the additional personnel should be ‘estimated separately, Mine associated capital costs Mine ste clearing. Prior. beginning construction, the mine/mill site must be first cleared of tees, plants and topsoil. The soil overburden should be stripped to the limits of the ultimate pit and stockpiled. The average soil thickness can be found from drilling Jogs or ultrasonic techniques. By multiplying the average thickness times the pit area, the volume is determined. As an aid to tonnage calculations, an acre of moist soil averaging 10ft in thickness contains sbout 23,000 tons of material. Forth pit, the required area Ay in ares is 4 1p = 0.017389 @sn ‘The clearing costs depend upon the topography, the type of cover, and the total area, They are expressed as 1600429 for 20% slopes with light tre growth ‘Total clearing cost = | $300429 for flat land with shrubs and no wees (2.52) '$200042° for 30% slopes with heavy trees Clearing, initial stripping and access road costs are plotted as a function of T, in Figure 2.14,Mining revenues and costs 137 Costs in dears (riions) 50,000 100,000 ‘Tons of ore and waste mined per day Figure 2.14, Clearing, stripping and road costs for open pit mines (0"Hara & Suboleski 1992). Pre-production waste stripping. The rock overburden above the ore must be stripped to expose a sufficient amount of ore to supply the planned daily ore tonnage fora period of four to six months. I insufficient ore has been exposed by the pre-production stapping ot ‘waste it may become difficult to continue ore mining due tothe close proximity of waste benches where blasting, loading, and haulage of waste is taking place. The location and required area ofthe ore exposure is determined from ore body mapping, Once this has been done, the average thickness and area of the waste rock overlying this core can be compated. Each acre of waste rock averaging 10ft in thickness contains about 40,000 tons of waste Beceuse ofthe inverted conical shape of the ultimate open pit, the waste/ore tonnage ratio at each horizontal bench decreases with each lower bench. Typically, the uppermost ore bench to be exposed has a wastelore ratio of at least twice the wasteore rato of the ultimate pit. IF7, is the tons of soil, and 7, is the tons of waste rock that must be stripped to expose an amount of ore to sustain four to six months ore production, then the estimated costs of waste stripping will be Soil stripping costs = $3,207 for soil not more than 20 deep (2.538) ‘Waste stripping costs = $34079° for rock requiring blasting, Joading, and haulage (2.530) Mine equipment (a) Drill. The size, hole diameter, and number of drills required depends on the tons of ore ‘and waste to be drilled off daily,138 Open pit mine planning and design Fundamentals ‘Typically, drill hole sizes have standard diameters of 4, 5, (14), 717A), 9, 97h). 105A). 12(4.), 136A). 15, and 1704) inches (or 102, 125, 165, 200, 229, 250, 270, 310, 350, 380, and 445 mm). Thus drill selection wil be limited to one ofthese sizes. ‘The tons of ore or waste that are drilled off per day by a drill with a hole diameter of d inches is: tons of medium drillable rock = 170d tons of easly drillable rock = 230d? 2.54) tons of hard drillable rock = 100d For the rock defined as ‘medium’ drllable, the expected production rate is about SOO ft per shift, ‘The number of drills Ng should never be less than wo, For tonnages up to 25,000¢pd, ‘wo drills of appropriate hole diameter should be chosen. Three drills should be adequate for up to 60,000 tpd and four or more drills will be required for daily tonnages over 60,000. ‘The cost ofthe drilling equipment is given by: Drilling equipment costs = Ny x $20,000d"* 255) This formula includes a 25% allowance for drilling and blasting supplies and accessory ‘equipment. (©) Shovels. The optimum shovel size S expressed in cubic yards of nominal dipper capacity in relation to daily tonnage of ore and waste T, to be loaded daily $= o.asro* 2.56) ‘The number of shovels N, with dipper size $ that will be required to load a total of T, tons of ue annd waste daily will be 57) In practice, the size of shovel chosen will be one with a standard dipper size close tothe size calculated by Equation (2.56). The calculated number of shovels Ny usually is not a whole ‘umber. It should be rounded dawn. The omitted fractional number expresses the need for either a smaller-sized shovel or a front-end loader for supplemental loading service. This smaller shovel or front end loader must, of course, be capable of loading trucks of a size appropriate to the shovels with dipper size S. ‘The total costs of the fleet of shovels supplemented by auxiliary bulldozers and front end loaders will be ‘Loading equipment cost = N, x $510,000S°* (2.58) (©) Trucks. The optimum truck size ¢ in tons that is well matched with shovels of bucket size S (cubic yards) is ‘Truck size f (tons) = 9.05"! (2.59) ‘The total number of trucks N, oft tons capacity required for the open pit truck flet, plus an allowance for trucks under repair, is approximated by the following formula: 78 Ny (Sumber of trucks required) = 0.25——— (2.60)Mining revenues and costs 139 Costs in doers (lions) 50,000 700,000 “Tons of ote and waste mined per day Figure 2.15. Costs for open pit equipment (O'Hara de Suboleski, 1992), ‘The formula for N, determines the size of the truck fleet under the typical conditions where the average haulage distance and gradient outside the pit periphery is less than the haulage distance and gradient inside the pit periphery. Ifthe waste dump and the ore dump by the primary crusher are well removed from the pit boundaries, or if the haulage road beyond the pt has a steep gradient, it may be necessary to increase the truck fleet size to allow for the longer trip time per load, The cost of haulage equipment including the accessory road maintenance equipment is sven by: Haulage equipment cost = N; x $20,0001°° 61) ‘The capital costs forthe production fleet are given in Figure 2.15, Pit services (@) Maintenance facilities. The size of maintenance facilities for repair and maintenance of open pit equipment depends primarily on the nusnber and size of dhe ine haulage ‘trucks, which in tum depends on the daily tonnage of ore and waste to be hauled. Repair and ‘maintenance ofthe shovels and drills is normally performed on ste by mobile repait vehicles. ‘The area in square feet required by the open pit maintenance shop (which should be located close to the open pit) is as follows: ‘Area of open pit repair shot = 36079* 2.0) ‘Thus the areas of repair shops required for open pit mines axe: ‘Mine size, tpd 10,000 20,000 40,000 80,000 Repair shop area, f? 14,300 18,900 25,000 33,000140 Open pit mine planning and design: Fundamentals 50,000 100,000 Tons of ore and waste mined per day Figure 2.16. Cost for ope ptseevces (O'Hara & Subolesk, 1992). ‘The cost of constructing and equipping the shop is expressed by Cost of pit maintenance facilities = $6000.41? ! (2.63) (b) Communication and electrical distribution. This cost includes the installed costs for a surface telephone system with mobile and base radio units and one or more repeaters depending on the size of the mine. The electrical distribution includes the installed costs of primary substations, transmission lines, portable skid-mount transformers, and trailing cables, all of which depend on the size of the open pit mine as measured by the daily tons T, of ore and waste mined. Cost of communications/electrical = $250 727 2.64) () Fueling system. This cost includes the storage and services for diesel fuel, gasoline, lubricants, and coolants for the truck haulage fleet and mobile service vehicles Cost of refcling system = $2897 2.65) “The open pit services costs are shown in Figure 2.16. Mill associated capital costs ‘Mill site clearing and foundation preparation costs. ‘The area A, (in acres) tobe cleared for the concentrator building, crusher building, substation, warehouse, and ancillary buildings is given by Ac = 0.05795 (2.6) In addition to this clearing, roads must be constructed from the nearest existing suitable road, to provide access to the concentrator site, the hoisting plant, the proposed tailings basin,Mining revenues and costs 141 and the source of the water supply. Costs for clearing and access roads forthe surface plant are estimated to be: Clearing costs = $2000.42 for lightly treed area with slopes of noi) not more than 20% gradient (2.678) Access roads = $280,000 per mile for 30-ft (9-m) wide graveled road in mildly billy region “The formulas shouldbe modified :30% for more adverse or more favorable slope and tree ‘growth conditions Soil overburden must be stripped wherever buildings and facilities are to be sited, The cost of stripping soil overburden D, fest deep over and area of A acres willbe: Cost of soil stripping = $10004°*D, (2.68) After the soil overburden is removed and the underlying rock or hasal strata i expased, this rock or strata will require localized removal, probably by drilling and blasting, to establish sound foundation conditions over levelled areas forthe plant buildings and plant equipment. If there are C, cubic yards of rock requiring drilling, blasting, and haulage to a dump site, this mass excavation will cost: ‘Cost of mass excavation = $200 C9” (2.69) for excavations of up to 100,000 ye? Ifthe mass excavation isin rock that can be broken by ripping, the cost will be only 20% of that indicated, When the mass excavation has been completed, detailed excavation to tailor the rock surface to the exact levels for pouring concrete foundations can be done. At the same time, suitable fill will be placed and compacted over level areas where deep trenches of soft soil hhave been removed. Ifthere are Cy cubic yards of rock tobe excavated by detailed excavation and F cubic yards of compacted fill to be placed, the cost will be: Excavated and fil compaction = $850 C36 + $75 Fa? 270) Concrete costs for the foundations of the concentrator building, fine ore bins, and concen- trator equipment probably will cost between $350 and $900/yd>, depending on whether the concrete pour is fora simple form with litle reinforcing steel or for a complex form that is heavily reinforced. The concrete cost may be significantly higher per cubic yard if concrete is scheduled to be poured in winter months when the temperature is below 40°F (44°C) and heating of agoregate and water and heating of concrete forms is required for sound concrete. It is difficult to estimate the shape and volume of concrete forms before these forms have been designed, and hence concrete costs related to concrete volume are unreliable for preliminary estimation. Assuming no difficulties Approximate concrete foundation costs = $30,000 7° en ‘These different costs are shown in Figure 2.17 as a function of daily plan capacity. Concentrator building. ‘The costs of the concentrator building include all costs of construct- ing the building above the concrete foundations and enclosing the building, plus the cost of internal offices, laboratories, and changerooms. It does not include the cost of process