Aitik mill as hub for a satellite mine

Preliminary development plan of a satellite copper deposit

Delft University of Technology

Melissa Markesteijn

BTA/RE/14-06

Aitik mill as hub for a satellite mine

Preliminary development plan of a satellite copper deposit
by Melissa Markesteijn

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Science
in Applied Earth Sciences

at the Delft University of Technology.

First Supervisor:
Second Supervisor:
Supervisor at Boliden:

Dr. ir. J. Benndorf

Dr. ir. D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard
A. Renstrm

An electronic version of this thesis is available at http://repository.tudelft.nl/.

A BSTRACT
The copper grade in the Aitik mine in northern Sweden is decreasing, therefore other deposits are
investigated. One of these deposits is the satellite deposit discussed in this thesis. The grade of this
deposit is higher than in Aitik and could thus be used to increase the copper production at the Aitik
mine site.
The goal of this thesis is to establish a preliminary development plan for a satellite copper deposit,
which will be processed at the Aitik processing plant.
A literature study showed that the geology of the Aitik mine is the same as that of the satellite
mine. Therefore the same design properties could be used as in the Aitik mine.
Because of the small surface operation and a steeply dipping ore, the best surface method for the
satellite mine is an open-pit operation. The mine design will slightly differ from the Aitik design, the
overall slope angle will be higher which results in less waste and thus less extracting costs. The overall
slope could be made higher by a smaller bench width.
Different cut-off values and elevations of the pit bottom are tried. The best result was obtained
with an elevation of the pit bottom of 400 meters. This means that the pit will be 85 meters deep,
since the average surface elevation is 485 meters. For the cut-off value is found that the best cut-off
value is 55 SEK. This would result in a maximum profit.
The fragmentation of the ore could best be done using a finer blasting schedule, instead of using
an in-pit crusher. The costs of finer blasting is less than that of an in-pit crusher.
The production schedule shows that the surface operation of this satellite mine will be from the
st
1 of January 2018 to the 29t h of May 2024, this means that the open-pit mine will produce for just
under 6,5 years. These dates are hypothetical and depend on the real starting date. After that a underground operation is considered. When this production schedule is used the Net Present Value of
the project will be 59,9 MSEK.
Therefore this project is economically profitable, although the profit is fairly low. However, the
prospects of a high-grade underground mine are promising. Therefore this will be a profitable project.
It is recommended for this project to do a more thorough research. The accuracy of grade in
the ore body is not very high, so this should be evaluated by drilling more boreholes. More models
should be evaluated, different cut-off values could be used, but also different production times could
be considered to mine the ore quicker and start earlier with the underground operation.
Also, a leaching plant at the Aitik processing site should be considered. More and more gold and
silver is extracted from the Aitik area, but the recovery of these metals is fairly low, this could be increased by a leaching operation.

C ONTENTS
Abstract

ii

List of Figures

iii

List of Tables

iv

Preface

1 Introduction
1.1 Relevance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Goal and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Report overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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2 The Aitik mine and its region

2.1 Geological Setting of the region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 The Aitik mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3
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3 Processing the copper ore

3.1 Crushing the ore . . . . . . .
3.2 Grinding and milling . . . . .
3.3 Flotation . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4 Limitations of the processing

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4 The satellite mine

4.1 Analysis of the satellite mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Fragmentation of the ore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5 Production schedule and economic evaluation

5.1 Production schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2 Economic evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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6 Conclusions

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7 Recommendations

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Bibliography

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Appendix A: Calculations for the satellite mine

A.1 Waste Reduction when using a 2 degrees steeper slope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.2 Different elevations cut-off of 55 SEK and 124 SEK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.3 Kuz-ram models for blasting to 300 and 1200 millimeters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Appendix B: Production Schedule

B.1 Summary of the stage 1 production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B.2 Summary of the stage 2 production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B.3 Total production overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Appendix C: Economic Evaluation

C.1 Calculation of the Net Present Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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L IST OF F IGURES
1.1 Expected copper grades at the Aitik mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.1 The location of the Aitik mine and its region in the northern part of Sweden (McGimpsey,
2010). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Geology of Northern Sweden (Wanhainen et al., 2012) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Schematic west-east vertical section through the Gllivare area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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3.1 The processing process at the Aitik processing site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3.2 The Mills at Aitik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 Principle of flotation (Kawatra, 2009) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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4.1 A simple model of the ore at the satellite mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2 Cross section of the block model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.3 The bench design of the satellite mine. Note that this drawing is hypothetical and not
to scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5.1 The outline of the satellite mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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A.1 The Kuz-ram model for blasting to 300 mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A.2 The Kuz-ram model for blasting to 1200 mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25
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B.3 Production Schedule Summary per bench . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

B.4 The gold and silver grades in the satellite mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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iii

L IST OF TABLES
2.1 Rock properties in the Aitik mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6

The amount of ore in the satellite mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The waste reduction if a steeper slope is used . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cut-off calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Properties of the emulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Costs for the drilling and blasting with an Atlas Copco SmartROC D65
The variables used for the blasting to 300 mm . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
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The total amount of days to mine the two stages and its start and end date
Summary of the production per year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The production of the trace elements gold and silver . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The long-term prices of copper, gold and silver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
NPV Model for different NSR values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
NPV Model for different capacities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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A.1 Waste Reduction Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A.2 Optimum pit depth calculated for two cut-off values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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B.1 Summary of the production per month for stage 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

B.2 Summary of the production per year for stage 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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C.1 The overall NPV Calculation of the project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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P REFACE
This report is written as a Bachelor thesis at the end of the Applied Earth Sciences Bachelors program
of the TU Delft in The Netherlands. The project is done for the company Boliden, with locations in
Scandinavia and Ireland. This report focuses on the Aitik mine in Sweden, in particular on a satellite
mine which will be located 15 kilometers away from the Aitik mine site. This thesis is part of a prefeasibility study.
I want to thank a few people who did help me to do this project. First of all, I want to thank Dr. ir.
J.Benndorf and Dr. ir. D.J.M. Ngan-Tillard for their support and supervision from the TU Delft. And
of course I want to thank Arne Renstrm from Boliden, without whom I wouldnt have been able to
work on this project. I also want to thank Boliden for providing all the necessary data to work with.
This report would not have been possible without the support of all the employees of Boliden, at
the office and at the Aitik mine site.

Melissa Markesteijn
Delft, June 2014

1
I NTRODUCTION
In this first chapter the main objective of this research is presented. The chapter closes with a short
outline of each chapter.

1.1. R ELEVANCE
The Aitik mine in northern Sweden is one of the biggest open pit copper mines in Europe. The mine
has produced copper since 1968. However, over the years the copper grade has drastically decreased.
The copper grade will decrease further in the next decade (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1: Expected copper grades at the Aitik mine

Around this Aitik mine, there are different other satellite deposits which are rich in copper. One
of them is located just 15 kilometers from the Aitik mine. The copper grade in this deposit is much
higher than in the Aitik mine, however it will be a much smaller operation. At the moment the aim
is to have a surface mine, which can produce ore for about 5 years. After this 5 years underground
mining is necessary. The plan is to open this surface mine in or before year X. From Figure 1.1 is clear
that the copper grade of the Aitik mine has a big decrease in that year. The copper from this satellite
mine could then be used to have a higher copper production.
This study will investigate the possibility of a surface mine at a satellite deposit, 15 kilometers
from the Aitik mine. This satellite mine will be implemented in the current processing at Aitik.

1.2. G OAL AND METHODS

The goal of this thesis can be summarized as follows:
"Establish a preliminary development plan for a satellite copper deposit with processing at the Aitik
plant"

1.3. R EPORT OVERVIEW

To be able to reach the goal of the thesis, the following is done:

Literature study of the geology of the area: can the assumption that the subsurface is the same
as in Aitik be validated?
Obtain information about the current mining methods and design of the Aitik mine in order to
determine if this could be used for this satellite mine.
Determine the best option for the fragmentation of the ore by finding an optimized blasting
schedule.
Create a production schedule for the copper ore.
Do a basic economic evaluation of the satellite mine operations.
Derive recommendations for mining the satellite mine.
In this studies, all economics are given in Swedish krona or SEK. In May 2014 the exchange rate is
(CNN (2014)):
Swedish krona
1

Euro
0,11

American dollar
0,15

1.3. R EPORT OVERVIEW

This thesis is structured as follows. In chapter 1 the general framework and objectives of this thesis
are discussed. Chapter 2 will go deeper into the region of the Aitik mine and the Aitik mine itself.
Chapter 3 will be about the processing at Aitik and its limitations. Chapter 4 will cover the satellite
mine with its data, assumptions and decisions. Chapter 5 will be about the production schedule
and the economic evaluation, this chapter will evaluate if the project is profitable or not. Finally, in
chapter 6 conclusions are presented and in chapter 7 the recommendations are set out.

2
T HE A ITIK MINE AND ITS REGION
This chapter will go deeper into the geology of Aitik and its surrounding and it will present some
current data from the Aitik mine and processing site.
The Aitik mine and its region is located in the northern part of Sweden. The location is shown on
the map of figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1: The location of the Aitik mine and its region in the northern part of Sweden (McGimpsey, 2010).

2.1. G EOLOGICAL S ETTING OF THE REGION

The bedrock geology in northern Sweden is the result of a complex geodynamic evolution including
repeated extensional and compressional tectonic regimes and associated magmatic and metamorphic events (Wanhainen et al., 2012). The deformation in the northern Norrbotten ore provinces,
the province in which the Aitik mine and its satellite mines are located, varies both regionally and
on a local scale from a strong penetrative foliation to texturally and structurally well preserved rocks.
The ductile deformation includes at least two phases of folding, with axial surface traces to the folds
mainly trending NW-SE and N-S. The age relationship between these two phases is not clear.
A highly saline(38 wt.% NaCl) aqueous magmatic fluid was released at about 300 degrees Centigrade and a pressure of nearly 3 kbar, forming disseminated and vein-type ore of mainly chalcopyrite
and pyrite within the intrusion and in the surrounding volcanoclastic rocks. At ca. 1.88 Ga this intrusive and mineralising event was followed by metamorphism and deformation, resulting in folding
and foliation of the rocks. Extensive deformation and redistribution of metals occured at ca. 1.78 Ga.

2.1. G EOLOGICAL S ETTING OF THE REGION

The Aitik CuAuAg deposit represents a Palaeoproterozoic, strongly metamorphosed porphyry type
deposit. The complex geology is shown in figure 2.2

P ORPHYRY DEPOSITS
A porphyry type deposit is a hydrothermal ore deposit (Voncken and Wolf, 2011). They are deposits
that are related to intrusions that have risen to a high level in the crust. These intrusions are subvolcanic. Aqueous fluids exsolve and collect in the apical part of the intrusion. Retrograde boiling can
occur in poryphyry deposits.
Upon retrograde boiling, the fluids escape by hydro fracturing of the country rock. Crystallization
of remaining silicate accelerated. Magmatic hydrothermal solutions contain dissolved metals and are
rich in potassium. In this kind of deposit different sulfides can be expected, including:
Chalcocite Cu 2 S
Chalcopyrite CuF eS 2
Bornite Cu 5 F eS 4
Molybdenite MoS 2
Zinc may form sphalerite Z nS
Excess Fe forms pyrite F eS 2

Figure 2.2: Geology of Northern Sweden (Wanhainen et al., 2012)

2.2. T HE A ITIK MINE

G EOLOGY OF THE SATELLITE MINE

Because of the early stage in the feasibility study, no real geological investigation has been done, i.e.
no rock mechanics results are available. However, there are some references from earlier studies that
suggest that the geology in Aitik and the satellite mine are the same. A geological study of Geological
Survey of Sweden (SGU) mentioned that the ore body extended all the way to the place of the satellite
mine (Danielson, 1987).
The data from figure 2.3 suggest indeed that the two ore bodies are on the same side of the fault
zones. This could suggest that the two locations do indeed have the same subsurface.

Figure 2.3: Schematic west-east vertical section through Gllivare area. The Aitik ore body is not to scale. NDZ = Nautanen
Deformation Zone, KADZ = Karesuando Arjeplog Deformation Zone. Red = younger intrusive rock. Green = volcanoclastic
rocks(Wanhainen et al., 2012).

Based on these two studies from Danielson (1987) and Wanhainen et al. (2012) the assumption
that the geology at the satellite mine is the same as in Aitik is validated. That means that the data
from Aitik can be used in this pre-feasibility study.

2.2. T HE A ITIK MINE

The Aitik mine is located in the northern part of Sweden, near the town of Gllivare. Aitik is the largest
copper mine in the world. The deposit consists of pyrite and chalcopyrite yielding copper, gold and
silver. The open pit is about 3 kilometers long, over 1 kilometer wide and 450 meters deep. The
deposit was discovered in the beginning of the 1930s, but its exploitation began in the 1960s. The
mining capacity is gradually tuned up since the large expansion in 2010 (Boliden, 2014).
Around the Aitik mine different small deposits have been found. These satellite deposits are not
far from the Aitik mine, so they could possibly be processed at the Aitik processing plant. One of these
deposits is the one used for this study.
Because the same rock type in the satellite mine is found, data from the Aitik mine could be used.
Some basic rock properties are listed in table 2.1.
Some discontinuities are found in Aitik and could also be expected at this satellite mine. In Aitik
pegmatite dikes are found, these dikes are harder than the surrounding rock and it is therefore harder
to drill, which can cause delays during the drilling and blasting of the rock.
Table 2.1: Rock properties in the Aitik mine

Rock Specific Gravity

Elastic Modulus
UCS

2,8
60 GPa
100 MPa

3
P ROCESSING THE COPPER ORE
This chapter will cover the processing steps at the processing plant at the Aitik mine site. Before the
ore gets into the processing sequence, drilling and blasting have to be done, as well as loading the ore
and transporting it to the processing site.
The process at the Aitik processing site is displayed in figure 3.1. The same processing site will be
used for the processing of the ore of the satellite mine.

Figure 3.1: The processing process at the Aitik processing site

3.1. C RUSHING THE ORE

3.1. C RUSHING THE ORE

The ore of Aitik is pre-crushed in the Aitik mine itself. Afterwards a cone crusher is used as secondary
crusher. Crushing is based on impact rather than on pressure. Cone crushers have a wide crushing
cone with a side angle of 30 C.
The crushing action is continuous. An eccentric cone is rotated in a funnel shaped opening. Starting the crusher with a full crushing chamber and a choke feed is possible. The feed can be directly
dumped from a mine truck (Chaigneau, 2011). After crushing, the ore is transported 7 kilometers by
conveyor belt to the ore storage.

3.2. G RINDING AND MILLING

There are two milling lines with a primary and a secundary mill. The capacity for each line is 2200
tonnes per hour, which leads to a total of 36 million tonnes per year. The primary mills are 12 meters
in diameter and 14 meters long. The motor in the primary mills has a capacity of 22.5 MW. The secondary mills are 11,4 meters in diameter and 12 meters long. The motor in the secondary mill is 10
MW. The feed fractions are between 25 and 100 mm and the discharge is 44 mesh(0.36 millimeters)
(Metso, 2006).
The grinding circuits are fully autogenous. They are so-called because they self-grind the ore.
A rotating drum throws larger rocks of ore in a cascading motion which causes impact breakage of
larger rocks and compressive grinding of finer particles. A picture of the grinding circuits is shown in
figure 3.2.

Figure 3.2: The Mills at Aitik

3.3. F LOTATION
In Aitik froth flotation is used. This is a method for physically separating particles based on differences in the ability of air bubbles to selectively adhere to specific mineral surfaces. When these particles are attached to the bubbles, they will be brought to the surface. These bubbles with its particles

3.4. L IMITATIONS OF THE PROCESSING

are then removed from the flotation tank (Kawatra, 2009). This principle of flotation is given in figure
3.3.

Figure 3.3: Principle of flotation (Kawatra, 2009)

In Aitik there are 52 flotation cells with a total volume of 5340 m 3 of flotation cells. To achieve
better grades re-floating is required in one (cleaner) or more (recleaner) additional stages (Miskovic,
2011). In Aitik there are different flotation tanks, the ore is enriched further and further in these tanks.

F URTHER PROCESSING
After these processing steps the concentrate is dried and stored. The concentrate will now have a
target of 60% copper. The concentrate will then be transported to the trains, which will transport
them to Bolidens smelter in Rnnskar, a smelter near the city of Skellefte.

3.4. L IMITATIONS OF THE PROCESSING

In order to implement the operation of the satellite deposit at the Aitik processing site, knowing the
limitations of the crusher are important. The only limitation is the fragmentation, the ore needs to
be fine enough to be processed at the Aitik site. The crusher in Aitik can take big boulders if necessary. However, for the trucks it is better to not have these boulders. The aim should be to get the
fragmentation under 300 mm. Therefore either fine blasting should be considered or the ore should
be pre-crushed at the mine site. The evaluation of both options will be discussed in section 4.2.

4
T HE SATELLITE MINE
There have been mining operations before on this location. The copper deposit was found in the late
19t h century. In the early 20t h century mining started. The community grew quickly, but soon enough
the mining company went bankrupt, leaving the location to what it is today. Now you can see the old
foundations of storages and some remnants of the copper mine of the early 1900s.
The satellite mine is located about 15 kilometers from the Aitik mine. Because of the relatively
small deposit, a surface mine is being investigated as an alternative to bring forward the mining of
the ore on top of an underground mine. The ore will be transported to the Aitik concentrator.
In this chapter an analysis of the satellite mine will be done, including mining methods and a
mine design. It will also include a comparison between blasting and pre-crushing of the ore.

4.1. A NALYSIS OF THE SATELLITE MINE

Figure 4.2: Cross section of the block model

Figure 4.1: A simple model of the ore at the satellite
mine

The ore deposit of the satellite mine is a narrow, steeply dipping ore as is visible in the figures 4.1
and 4.2 (Boliden Technology, 2014). This means production costs fastly increase with depth, because
there will be more waste production. Investigation of the boreholes at the site are focused on the
high-grade deep zone, leaving only one borehole directly adjacent to the surface mine. This means
that there is a high uncertainty, mainly around the boundaries of the surface mine and the marginal
ore.
The amount of ore from the satellite mine is determined in Bolidens Ideastudy using a block
model (Boliden Technology, 2014). The ore data can be found in table 4.1.
9

4.1. A NALYSIS OF THE SATELLITE MINE

10

Table 4.1: The amount of ore in the satellite mine

ORE FROM PIT

Ore (kton)

5233

Ore Cu (%)

0.5

Ore Au (g/ton)

0.2

Ore Ag(g/ton)

1.3

Ore NSR

170

M INING METHOD
To start, a mining method has to be chosen. There are several options, having an underground mine
or a surface mine. Research has been done and because of the narrow, steeply dipping formation it
would be beneficial to start with a surface mine. This surface mine should be fairly shallow, because
the deeper this mine is, the more waste it will produce. The costs therefore fastly increase with depth.
There are four common surface mining methods (Darling, 2011):
Open-pit mining
Quarrying
Strip mining
Auger mining
Strip mining and open-pit mining are the two most dominant types of surface mining methods in
the world, accounting for approximately 90% of the surface mineral tonnage. Strip mining is used for
large, tabular, flat lying ore bodies for mineral seams, that are relatively close to the surface. Open-pit
mining is typically applied to disseminated ore bodies for steeply dipping veins or seams where the
mining advance is toward increasing depth. Quarrying is a special type of open-pit mining used to
produce aggregates and dimension stone products. The last method, auger mining, is primarily used
to remove coal from under a final highway.
This means that for the satellite mine an open-pit mine is preferred. The ore body is steeply dipping and therefore the open-pit is a good option. This option is also preferred, since the assumption
is that the ore is the same as in Aitik. This means the methods from the Aitik mine could be used at
this satellite mine site, i.e. it would cost less because a lot of knowledge is already there.

M INE DESIGN
To have an optimized open pit design, alternative depths of the open pit have been analyzed by Boliden Technology (2014). The open pit mine is relatively shallow, the depth varies from 120 meters in
the south end to 60 meters toward the north end. Optimization has been done by testing a number of
alternative open pit bottoms from Z355 to Z435 with a simplified design, Z355 stands for 355 meters
above sealevel and is according to the Swedish coordinate system. The optimization did also consider different cut-off grades, that is: values of 55 SEK and 124 SEK. The calculations can be found in
appendix A.2. The optimum pit-bottom height is Z400 for a cut-off of 55 SEK and Z435 for a cut-off
value of 124 SEK.
The same design criteria are used for embankments as used in the Aitik mine, but the design is
slightly adjusted. The total slope will be 2 degrees steeper than in the Aitik mine. This can be done,
because of the shallow open pit. A steeper slope is beneficial, because it reduces the volume of the

4.1. A NALYSIS OF THE SATELLITE MINE

11

Table 4.2: The waste reduction if a steeper slope is used

WASTE
Waste original design(kton)

10.717

Reduced waste rock with a steeper slope of 2 degrees (kton)

- 1.169

Waste steep design (kton)

9.549

waste rock. The total reduction of waste rock is shown in table 4.2. This would mean that the benches
would be smaller, this is possible because of the smaller equipment that is used.
The total table with its assumption can be found in appendix A.1.
The maximum slope for the rock itself will be 72 , this is the same slope as in Aitik. The bench width
will be between 16 and 18 meters. This leads to an overall slope of 54 .
The bench heights of 10 and 15 meters have been considered. The bench height of 10 meters is chosen.
The total mine design is shown in figure 4.3.

Figure 4.3: The bench design of the satellite mine. Note that this drawing is hypothetical and not to scale.

C UT- OFF VALUE

The cut-off value for the NSR in the open pit mine will differ from the final cut-off grade that will be
used in underground mining. There is a difference, because all the ore and waste from the open pit
mine have to be transported to the pits edges. The waste rock will later be used as backfill, to fill the
open pit mine. The waste rock will be stored close to the edges of the open pit mine.
There are a few cut-off options (Boliden Technology, 2014):
A cut-off of NSR 124 SEK/ton gives 2.1 million tonnes of ore with an average NSR of approximately 400 SEK and a copper grade of 1.0%
A cut-off of NSR 55 SEK/ton gives 5.2 million tonnes of ore with an average NSR of approximately 200 SEK and a copper grade of 0.5%

4.2. F RAGMENTATION OF THE ORE

12

Table 4.3: Cut-off calculations

Cutoff Open pit Satellite mine

SEK/ton
Mining

Assumes that the rock will

be mined whether its ore or
waste rock.

Crushing

5, 0

Transport to Aitik

17, 5

Backfilling of waste rock to the

pits

11, 3

Coverage

Possible crushing
Back filling

Enrichment

27, 5
Theoretical cut-off

Cutoff NSR
Copper grade

Used in calculation
39

55

0, 11%

0,15%

The cut-off grade in the calculation as shown in table 4.3 is slightly higher than the theoretical
one, because it has to be a certainty that it would be profitable. From appendix A.2 is clear that the
maximum result will be obtained with an elevation of Z400 for the pit bottom and a cut-off value of
55 SEK. Therefore this value will be used further in this research.

4.2. F RAGMENTATION OF THE ORE

In order to process the ore at the Aitik crusher, the fragmentation should be taken into account. The
biggest problem is not the crusher itself, but the transportation to the crusher. Its not favourable if the
rocks are bigger than 300 mm, thus it should be either blasted to smaller particles or blasted to a bigger
size and crushed at the mine site. The fragmentation of 300 mm could be accomplished by making
a finer blasting schedule, i.e. more emulsion in order to get the rocks finer fragmented. Another
method to get finer rocks is to have an in-pit crusher that pre-crushes the ore, however blasting still
needs to be done. Both of these options are discussed.

D RILLING AND BLASTING

The ore and waste in the satellite mine will be drilled and blasted. The needed fragmentation size
depends on the use of an in-pit crusher or not. The costs of both possibilities are evaluated.
For the drilling and blasting the Kuz-ram model is used. This is an empirical model that uses blast
design and rock factors in an empirical equation to predict the fragmentation size distribution.
For this analysis some factors have to be chosen, such as the burden and spacing. The burden is the
minimal distance from the axis of a blasthole to the free space. The spacing is the distance between
blastholes in the same row. These parameters depend upon the drilling diameters, the properties of
the rock and explosives and the height of the bench (Jimeno et al., 1995).
From Hardygra et al. (2004) the value u, which determines the size distribution curve, can be
calculated by the following formula:
l
H
in which D is the blasthole diameter in millimeters, B is the burden in meters, S is the spacing in
meters, l is the total charge length in meters, l f is the length of the bottom charge in meters, l c is the
u = [2.2 14B /D] [((1 + S/B )/2)0.5 ] [1 E p /B ] [|l f l c |/l + 0.1]0.1

4.2. F RAGMENTATION OF THE ORE

13

length of the column charge in meters, H is the bench height and E p is the typical deviation due to
drilling.
The same emulsion as in Aitik is used, this emulsion has the properties listed in table 4.4. Together
with the rock properties from section 2.2 it gives the fixed parameters of the calculation.
Table 4.4: Properties of the emulsion

Explosives
Density

SG

Relative Weight Strength

90%

(% ANFO)

Nominal VOD

5500

m/s

Effective VOD

5500

m/s

Explosive Strength

0,9

In the block model a bench height of 10 meters is used. The stemming is usually around 70% of
the burden according to National Park Service (1999). The stemming is the part of the borehole that
is not filled with explosives, but with a stemming material such as gravel or sand.
With the blasting the aim is to have 80% of the rocks smaller than 300 mm. Another alternative is
to blast the rocks to 1200 mm and pre-crush it at the satellite mine site. Both of these options need to
be considered. The intention of this comparison is to find the most cost-efficient blasting plan.
Using Atlas Copco (2013) the different drills are found with their properties, the most important
property is the hole range. With this diameter the amount of emulsion could be evaluated to get a
size distribution that could be used for the satellite mine.
A good option for drilling and blasting is the Atlas Copco SmartROC D65, a percussive drilling
machine. Other machines could be possible as well, however for this pre-feasibility study the D65 is
used as a reference. This would be a typical sort of equipment that will be used in a small open-pit
operation. The maximum diameter it can drill is 203 mm. Based on this the Kuz-ram model is made
as shown in appendix A.3.
The costs are based on the known costs per meter from the Aitik mine, this is a total cost of 560
SEK/m. The hole diameter of the Atlas Copco SmartROC D65 is smaller than in Aitik. Therefore the
total costs will be an overestimate of the real costs. In table 4.5 two numbers are evaluated. First the
costs if 80% of the rocks is smaller than 300 mm and secondly the costs if 80% of the rocks is smaller
than 1200 mm.
Table 4.5: Costs for the drilling and blasting with an Atlas Copco SmartROC D65

Target size
300 mm
1200 mm

Hole diameter
203 mm
203 mm

Charge Length
7, 2 m
7, 2 m

Charge Density

# holes

Total costs

1, 29 kg/m

39723

160 MSEK

0, 97 kg/m

29792

121 MSEK

The difference between these two fragmentation sizes is about 40 MSEK, this excludes the costs
of the SmartROC D65 itself, but this will be the same for both. This means that blasting to 300 mm is
more expensive, because more drill holes are needed. However, if the rock is blasted to a size of 1200
mm the rock needs to be pre-crushed by an in-pit crusher.
These costs do not include the Atlas Copco SmartROC D65 itself. The costs of this equipment will
have more or less the same price as the SmartROC D65 in Aitik, which will cost around 7 MSEK.
The variables chosen for the blasting to 300 mm is given in table 4.6.

4.2. F RAGMENTATION OF THE ORE

14

Table 4.6: The variables used for the blasting to 300 mm

Hole Diameter

203

mm

Charge Length

7,2

Burden

Spacing

4,5

Drill Accuracy SD

0,1

Bench Height

10

U SING AN IN - PIT CRUSHER

An in-pit crusher can be rented, so that means a fixed cost per ton is known for the operation. The
costs for an in-pit crusher is 10 SEK/ton. Only the ore needs to be pre-crushed, the waste will be
dumped on the edge of the mine, no matter what the size is. This means that about 5.2 Mton need to
be crushed. The total costs of this operation would be around 52 MSEK.

This means that the total costs for blasting to 1200 mm and then crushing it would be more expensive than blasting to 300 mm with direct transport to the Aitik processing site. Therefore the option to
blast it to 300 mm is preferred.

5
P RODUCTION SCHEDULE AND ECONOMIC
EVALUATION
With the information of the previous chapters, a production schedule can be made. When a production schedule is made, an economic evaluation could be done. In this economic evaluation comes
forward if the mining of this satellite mine is profitable or not, in order to make a decision to go
through with the project. This evaluation is done in this chapter.

5.1. P RODUCTION SCHEDULE

The satellite mine will be mined in two stages, the division of the two stages is the green line in figure
5.1 (Boliden Technology, 2014). The decision is made to mine in two stages because the mining would
be faster. Now it is possible to mine at two positions at once which will increase the production.

Figure 5.1: The outline of the satellite mine

Per stage one shovel will be used, for the calculation a capacity of 1000 tonnes per hour is used.
If the first stage is finished, the shovel that is used for it will be used in the second stage. Thus it
will double the capacity in stage 2. However, the first blast of every bench can only use one shovel,
because of the available space. The other blasts can be done simultaneously and thus the two shovels
15

5.1. P RODUCTION SCHEDULE

16

can be used. This all ends up in a production schedule, which is summarized in table 5.1. This would
mean that the open-pit mine can produce for just under 6,5 years. A workweek of 2 shifts and 5 days
a week is assumed: this results in 12 hours of work a day, 5 days a week.
Table 5.1: The total amount of days to mine the two stages and its start and end date

Total duration(days)

Start date

End date

stage 1

815

01/01/2018

26/03/2020

stage 2

2340

01/01/2018

29/05/2024

In the production schedule a difference is made between the till, waste and ore. The till is mined first,
followed by the waste and ore. The till is done first, because this is the soft soil which can be easily
extracted. The waste and ore have to be blasted, because the rock is a lot harder. In the block model
the different parts are divided in either waste or ore, so that could be mined separately. With this
information the production can be summarized per year, as done in table 5.2.
Table 5.2: Summary of the production per year

Year

Till (kton)

Void+waste (kton)

Ore (kton)

Copper grade %

Copper tonnes

NSR

2018

1.654

1.346

127

0,4

467

170

2019

1.086

1.301

741

0,3

2.425

110

2020

349

1.932

718

0,5

3.284

140

2021

100

1.994

579

0,5

2.965

190

2022

2.109

956

0,4

4.165

170

2023

1.619

1.362

0,5

7.097

200

2024

415

750

0,7

4.954

260

3.191

10.717

5.233

0,5

25.356

170

Grand Total

The production per month for the first stage is given in appendix B.1. In appendix B.2 the production
per year is given for stage 2. An overal production per bench is given in appendix B.3.

T RACE E LEMENTS
Besides copper, other trace elements are found in the ore. The ones that will be processed are silver
and gold.
The amount of gold and silver during the two stages and the total amount of these trace elements
is given in table 5.3. The amount of silver and gold is given in figure B.4 for the entire production of
the satellite mine.
Table 5.3: The production of the trace elements gold and silver

Stage

Ore (kton)

Ag (g/ton)

Au (g/ton)

Ag (kg)

Au (kg)

Stage 1

1.105

1,0

0,1

1.091

144

Stage 2

4.129

1,4

0,2

5.924

976

Total

5.233

1,3

0,2

7.015

1120

The processing site in Aitik is not optimized for silver and gold, therefore the recovery is pretty
low. Only about 50% of the gold is retrieved from the concentrate, for silver theres a slightly higher
percentage of approximately 65% that is recovered.

5.2. E CONOMIC EVALUATION

17

5.2. E CONOMIC EVALUATION

Using the production schedule an NPV calculation could be done. To do this calculation the longterm metal prices are needed. The prices that Boliden uses are listed in Boliden Technology (2013)
and given in table 5.4. A troy ounce is equal to 31.10 grams.
Table 5.4: The long-term prices of copper, gold and silver

metal

prices

Cu

$6600/ton

Au

$1200/tr.oz

Ag

$20/tr.oz

With all this data a net present value calculation can be done. The Net Present Value(NPV) of a
project is todays cash equivalent of the cash flow that is expected to be generated by this project,
assuming that money can be invested or borrowed at a specified discount rate (Rendu, 2014). The
formula for the NPV is:
N PV (i , N ) =

N
X

Rt
t
t =0 (1 + i )

in which N is the total number of years, R t is the net cash flow, i is the discount rate and t is the
time of the cash flow.
The discount rate used in the NPV calculation is 10%. The enrichment at the Aitik processing site
costs the same as for the Aitik ore. The mining costs, till extraction and mining and transport costs of
the ore are based on historic knowledge of the costs in other mines, which was provided by Boliden.
An example of a NPV-calculation is given in appendix C.1. The NPV of this operation is 59,9 MSEK.
It is still an early stage in the feasibility study, but some sensibility calculations could be done
based on the NSR. The NSR of the ore depends on the long-term costs of copper, gold and silver.
These prices could vary in the upcoming years. It turns out that the break-even point is around 152
MSEK as shown in table 5.5.
Table 5.5: NPV Model for different NSR values

NSR

NPV

150

-6.6 MSEK

151.93

0 MSEK

160

27.5 MSEK

170

61.6 MSEK

180

95.7 MSEK

190

129.8 MSEK

The project is also sensible for the exchange rate between the American dollar and the Swedish
krona. Everything in this studies is calculated in SEK, but the company gets paid in American dollars.
The exchange rate could be either favourable or unfavourable and could be a factor in the economic
evaluation. This calculation is not included in this studies.
An NPV model is made for different capacities. In table 5.6 the NPV is given for different capacities.
If the capacity per hour is increased, the project time is decreased, and vice versa. The calculation is
done for a capacity of 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 tonnes/hour.

5.2. E CONOMIC EVALUATION

18

Table 5.6: NPV Model for different capacities

capacity

NPV

500 tonnes/hour

7.0 MSEK

1000 tonnes/hour

59.9 MSEK

1500 tonnes/hour

53.4 MSEK

2000 tonnes/hour

58.9 MSEK

From table 5.6 is clear that a capacity of 1000 tonnes/hour is the most favourable for this project.
This is the capacity that is used for this studies.

6
C ONCLUSIONS
The objective of this project was to establish a preliminary development plan for for a satellite copper
deposit with processing at the Aitik plant.
As a result of this studies the following conclusions can be made.
The geology of the satellite mine is found to be similar than in Aitik. Thus the same design
properties could be used as found in Aitik.
An open-pit mine is the best surface mining option. A slightly steeper overall slope angle could
be used and for the rock the same slope angle will be used as in Aitik.
The best cut-off value is 55 SEK with a pit bottom of 400 meters and thus a pit depth of 85
meters.
It is more cost-efficient to blast the ore to 300 millimeters than to blast it to a bigger size of 1200
millimeters and then pre-crush it at the satellite mine site.
The production time of the open-pit operation is just under 6,5 years.
The Net Present Value of the operation is 59,9 MSEK.
An NPV model shows that the most favourable capacity for this project is 1000 tonnes/hour.
This open-pit operation is supposed to be followed by an underground operation. The ore grade
in the lower part of the open-pit mine is higher than the upper part of the mine. Therefore the average
grade of the underground operation would probably be higher than that of the surface mine. This
could mean that the underground operation is more profitable than the open-pit operation.
Since this open-pit operation has a positive Net Present Value of 60 MSEK with the prospect of
an even more profitable underground operation, the mining of this satellite deposit has a promising
perspective.

19

7
R ECOMMENDATIONS
This study suggests that the mining of the satellite deposit is a profitable operation. However, to
get more accurate results and more certainty about the project, the following recommendations are
made:
1. Evaluate the ore body more accurately by drilling more holes
The ore body model is now made with only one borehole. That means that almost all the ore
in this investigation is a result of extrapolating the existing data from the deeper part of the ore
body to the upper part. By drilling more holes the model of the shallower part could be made
more accurate.
2. Look into the archives to find information about the former mine in the 1920s Since there was a
mine in the 1920s it is possible that there is geological information available. This might give
an indication about the deposit. It might be that there were some tests done at that time which
could be used to make a better evaluation of the project.
3. More cut-off values could be considered
For this pre-feasibility study only the cut-offs of 55 SEK and 124 SEK are considered. For future research other cut-off grades could be considered to get the most profitable model for this
open-pit operation.
4. Investigate the possibility of decreasing the production time of the open-pit part of the mine
The length of the operation by using two shovels with a capacity of 1000 tonnes/hour is 6,5
years. The production could be faster by using longer working days, 3 shifts instead of 2 and
working all days of the week, instead of 2 shifts and working 5 days a week. Another option is
to use more shovels and thus increase the capacity. However, it turns out that the increase of
capacity is not profitable.
5. Consideration of a leaching plant as an extension of the current processing site
The recovery of gold and silver is relatively low. This recovery could be increased by using a
separate leaching plant to extract the gold and silver. Since the production of the Aitik mine
itself increases, and there are also satellite mines that will increase production in the future, it
might be profitable to have a leaching plant on site to recover the silver and gold.

20

B IBLIOGRAPHY
Atlas Copco (2013). Blasthole Reference Book. Atlas Copco.
Boliden (2014). Aitik fact sheet. http://www.boliden.com/Documents/Press/Publications/
Fact%20sheets/facts-aitik-en.pdf. Last checked: 28 April 2014.
Boliden Technology (2013). Annual Report 2013.
Boliden Technology (2014). Idstudie 2014 Dagbrott.
Chaigneau, R. (2011). Physical Processing. TU Delft.
CNN (2014). Currency exchange rate. http://money.cnn.com/data/currencies/. Last checked:
2 May 2014.
Danielson, S. (1987). Geologisk beskrivning ver Nautanen - Aitik - Jrbokistrket i Gllivareomrdet.
Sveriges Geologiska Underskning.
Darling, P. (2011). SME Mining Engineering Handbook. Society for mining, metallurgy and exploration, Inc., 3rd edition.
Hardygra, M., Paszkowska, G., and Sikora, M. (2004). Mine Planning and Equipment Selection 2004.
CRC Press.
Jimeno, E. L., Jimeno, C. L., and Carcedo, A. (1995). Drilling and blasting of rocks. Geomining Technological Institute of Spain.
Kawatra, S. K. (2009). Froth Flotation. Michigan Technological University.
McGimpsey, I. (2010). Petrology and lithogeochemistry of the host rocks of the nautanen cu-au deposit, gllivare area, northern sweden. Masters thesis, Lund University.
Metso (2006).

Service contract for swedish grinding mills.

http://www.metso.
com/miningandconstruction/webmagazine.nsf/WebWID/WTR0602132256BC7966?
OpenDocument. Last checked: 8 May 2014.

Miskovic, S. (2011). An investigation of the gas dispersion properties of mechanical flotation cells: an
in-situ approach. PhD thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
National Park Service (1999). Handbook for the transportation, and use of explosives. National Park
Service.
Rendu, J.-M. (2014). An introduction to cut-off grade estimation. Society for mining, metallurgy and
exploration, Inc., 2nd edition.
Voncken, J. H. L. and Wolf, K. H. A. A. (2011). Economic Minerals and Rocks - An introduction to ores,
ore minerals, industrial minerals, and coal. TU Delft.
Wanhainen, C., Broman, C., Martinsson, O., and Magnor, B. (2012). Modification of a palaeoproterozoic porphyry-like system: integration of structural, geochemical, petrographic, and fluid inclusion
data from the aitik cu-au-ag deposit, northern sweden. Ore Geology Reviews, 48:306331.

21

Appendices

A PPENDIX A: C ALCULATIONS FOR THE

SATELLITE MINE

A.1. WASTE R EDUCTION WHEN USING A 2 DEGREES STEEPER SLOPE

Table A.1: Waste Reduction Calculation

Calculation of waste that can be saved by having a steeper slope

Changing the
slope from IRS
50 to IRS 52
saves X meters
per pallet

3m

Approximate
open pit depth

90 m

bench height

15 m

density

2,8

Production of waste per year

Length of open pit

kton

Y2018

Y2019

Y2020

Pall 1

437 m

110

Pall 2

890 m

224

Pall 3

880 m

222

70%

30%

Pall 4

820 m

207

30%

70%

Pall 5

810 m

204

Pall 6

800 m

202

Y2021

Y2022

100%
60%

40%

70%

30%
80%

1.169

135

23

417

345

20%
223

40

A.2. D IFFERENT ELEVATIONS CUT- OFF OF 55 SEK AND 124 SEK

Note that the average surface elevation at the satellite mine is 485 meters.

Table A.2: Optimum pit depth calculated for two cut-off values

Low grade cutoff HG=125 LG=80 Mar=55

Avg. Pit depth (m):

100

50

85

130

Design criteria for corresponding slopes at Aitik

Pit bottom elevation (m):
Ore (million tonnes)

385

435

400

355

7, 38

1, 91

5, 24

11, 67

Cu%

0, 4

0, 6

0, 5

0, 4

NSR SEK/ton

170

240

190

160

4, 34

1, 54

3, 19

6, 43

Waste Rock (million tonnes)

16, 01

4, 01

10, 72

28, 59

Total ore, waste rock and moraine

27, 72

7, 45

19, 16

46, 70

Moraine (million tonnes)

Costs and Revenues in million SEK

Refractive Cost

693

186

479

1167

Transport & Enrichment

369

95

262

584

Recovery
Ore revenue

80

20

54

143

1283

466

996

1864

141

165

202

30

Results

High grade Cutoff = 124

100

50

85

130

Design criteria for corresponding slopes at Aitik

Pit bottom elevation (m):

385

435

400

355

Ore (million tonnes)

2, 23

0, 93

1, 80

3, 18

Cu%

1, 01

1, 04

1, 02

0, 98

NSR SEK/ton

410

430

420

400

4, 34

1, 54

3, 19

6, 43

Waste Rock (million tonnes)

21, 15

4, 98

14, 16

37, 08

Total ore, waste rock and moraine

27, 72

7, 45

19, 16

46, 70

Moraine (million tonnes)

Costs and Revenues in million SEK

Refractive Cost

693

186

479

1167

Transport & Enrichment

112

47

90

159

Recovery

106

25

71

185

922

398

754

1271

11

140

114

241

Ore revenue
Results

24

A.3. K UZ - RAM MODELS FOR BLASTING TO 300 AND 1200 MILLIMETERS

Figure A.1: The Kuz-ram model for blasting to 300 mm

Figure A.2: The Kuz-ram model for blasting to 1200 mm

25

A PPENDIX B: P RODUCTION S CHEDULE

B.1. S UMMARY OF THE STAGE 1 PRODUCTION
Table B.1: Summary of the production per month for stage 1

Month

Till (kton)

Void+waste (kton)

Ore (kton)

Ag g/ton

Au g/ton

Cu %

jan-18

98

33

0,0

0,0

0,6

feb-18

98

22

mrt-18

130

0.6

3,3

0,5

1,1

apr-18

115

13

0,0

0,0

0,2

mei-18

22

110

0.8

3,3

0,5

1,1

jun-18

20

61

47

0,8

0,2

0,4

jul-18

71

61

44

0,5

0,1

0,1

aug-18

133

sep-18

55

74

okt-18

84

15

34

0,7

0,1

0,3

nov-18

107

17

0,6

0,1

0,2

dec-18

84

15

33

1,0

0,2

0,4

jan-19

73

60

0,7

0,1

0,2

111

1,1

0,1

0,4

133

1,1

0,1

0,4

64

1,0

0,2

0,4

feb-19
mrt-19
apr-19

31

33

mei-19

127

0,9

0,2

0,4

12

116

1,0

0,1

0,3

101

1,0

0,1

0,3

jun-19
jul-19

32

aug-19

101

22

10

0,7

0,1

0,17

sep-19

70

46

12

1,0

0,1

0,3

okt-19

122

1,0

0,1

0,3

nov-19

10

50

68

0,6

0,1

0,2

82

51

1,1

0,1

0,3

133

1,1

0,1

0,3

dec-19
jan-20
feb-20

76

mrt-20
Grand Total

1.340

1.051

26

48

1,1

0,1

0,3

110

1,1

0,1

0,3

1.105

1,0

0,1

0,3

B.2. S UMMARY OF THE STAGE 2 PRODUCTION

Table B.2: Summary of the production per year for stage 2

Year

Till (kton)

Void + Waste (kton)

Ore (kton)

Ag g/ton

Au g/ton

Cu %

2018

636

923

2,1

0,4

0,8

2019

765

750

49

1,7

0,3

0,6

2020

349

1.855

427

1,0

0,2

0,6

2021

100

1.993

579

1,4

0,3

0,5

2022

2.109

956

1,2

0,2

0,4

2023

1.619

1362

1,5

0,2

0,5

2024

415

750

1,9

0,3

0,7

1.851

9.667

4.129

1,4

0,2

0,5

Grand Total

B.3. T OTAL PRODUCTION OVERVIEW

Figure B.3: Production Schedule Summary per bench

27

Figure B.4: The gold and silver grades in the satellite mine

28

jan-18

sep-18 mei-19

jan-20

sep-20

jun-21

feb-22

okt-22

jun-23

feb-24

Stage 1

Stage 2

The total tonnage and ore production

300000

tonnes

250000

200000
150000
100000
50000

Ore tonnes

apr.24

jan.24

okt.23

jul.23

apr.23

jan.23

okt.22

jul.22

apr.22

jan.22

okt.21

jul.21

apr.21

jan.21

okt.20

jul.20

apr.20

jan.20

okt.19

jul.19

apr.19

jan.19

okt.18

jul.18

apr.18

jan.18

Total tonnes

Amount of ore, waste and till

300000

250000
150000
100000
50000

Ore

Waste

apr.24

jan.24

okt.23

jul.23

apr.23

jan.23

okt.22

jul.22

apr.22

jan.22

okt.21

jul.21

apr.21

jan.21

okt.20

jul.20

apr.20

jan.20

okt.19

jul.19

apr.19

jan.19

okt.18

jul.18

apr.18

jan.18

till

1.40

1.40

1.20

1.20

1.00

1.00

0.80

0.80

0.60

0.60

0.40

0.40

0.20

0.20

0.00
jan-18

0.00
mei-19

sep-20
Copper grade

feb-22
Gold grade

jun-23

g/ton

Copper and gold grade

Percentage

Tonnes

200000

A PPENDIX C: E CONOMIC E VALUATION

C.1. C ALCULATION OF THE N ET P RESENT VALUE
Table C.1: The overall NPV Calculation of the project

30