Information Circular 8602: Estimated Costs to Produce Copper at Kennicott, Alaska

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bottge, Robert G. ; Maloney, Raymond P.
• Description:
  The economic viability of four depleted mines near kennicott, Alaska, was determined by the Bureau of Mines to assess their profitability if they were developed today and thus estimate cost data for a medium-sized mine, mill, and town complex. Modern conventional mining and milling techniques were assumed, and capital and operating costs were derived using flowsheets and standard costing methods. A total capital investment of $37.6 million was necessary to install a 1,000-ton-per-day shrinkage stope mine, flotation-type mill, and support facilities. Operating costs, including labor, supplies, power, water, and indirect and fixed costs, totaled $42.79 Per ton of ore; the mining accounted for nearly one-half the cost. To obtain a 12-percent discounted cash flow rate of return on investment, the analysis showed that the ore could be mined and milled, and the concentrate could be trucked via public roads to a dock facility in Valdez, Alaska, barged to Tacoma, Washington, and smelted and refined for 34.7 Cents per pound for copper and 104.0 Cents per ounce for silver. The average May 1972 price was 52.6 Cents for copper and 158.3 Cents for silver. The same set of data was used to examine the economic viability of the mine with the cost of constructing a private road from McCarthy, Alaska, to Valdez, Alaska. The 148-mile road added $53.3 million to the original capital costs and raised the required price of copper to 57.4 Cents per pound and the required price of silver to 172.0 Cents per ounce. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Copper Metals Mining Occupational Health Safety
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Subseries:
  Information Circular
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Alaska ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  AFOC - Alaska Field Operations Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  39 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10009462
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB-225030/6
• Citation:
  NTIS: PB 225 030/6 :35 pages
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1973
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  NTIS: PB 225 030/6
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:eb1aa016a72db13ea9dbc76573bc05e5fc41e9c241388276aeacbc0fb095b2d464751f085a897b0a17ed2242f6feb2cfd7881cd73d477f8684039d369e544872
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/206256/cdc_206256_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.33 MB ]