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All mine models are based on physical material flows from the mine through crushing, grinding and concentration to final metal in concentrate, according to the flowsheet for the particular operation. Costs are estimated for each separate step from mining, ore and waste haul, ore hoisting (for underground mines), waste transport to waste dumps, ore transport to the mill, ore crushing and grinding, ore treatment, flotation, concentrate thickening, tailings thicken and placement, to concentrate loading and transport. We also do SXEW. Each step along the flowsheet is explicitly modelled terms of daily cost and in costs per unit of production.
Aggregate costs are calculated for ore mined and milled, costs to concentrate and costs to final metal. Metal production costs include off-site transport and smelting and refining charges. The models also calculate the value of by products to be credited against the cost of production of the primary metal. Since our models are in spreadsheet format, diagrams are not particularly useful. We therefore show flowsheet details as numbers or "switches" in each year. For example, for ore grinding we use 1 to indicate SAG milling, 2 for autogenous grinding and 3 for ball milling. Parameters such as ore hardness, mesh size, ball consumption etc are shown as a number for each year. The flowsheets also contain input data such as price and cost indices, exchange rates, prices assumed for key inputs such as labor, electricity and fuel and the implied usage of supplies and materials and labor productivity factors. See an image of our Flowsheet section. |
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