A PRE-FEASIBILITY STUDY OF LIMESTONE QUARRY DEVELOPMENT FOR CEMENT INDUSTRY IN CAMBODIA

Abstract

The research presents a pre-feasibility study of limestone quarry development for cement industry in Cambodia. The research area locates at Prey Ta Pret village, Banteay Meas district, Kampot province, Cambodia. This research focuses mainly on the technical development of limestone quarry with the following objectives; (1) to construct the geological block model to calculate the geological resource and to provide an input for quarry operation and design; (2) to formulate an optimum quarry development involving ore modeling, mineable reserve estimation, pit design, mine operation, and mine rehabilitation; (3) to develop a financial analysis involving discounted cash flow model, Net Present Value (NPV), the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and the Weight Average Cost of Return (WACC). The result of geological block model generates 560,000 blocks with block discretization of 15mx15mx10m in (x,y,z) dimension. The geological resource of 204 million tons is estimated by using the Inverse Distance Square Method. The pit optimization using the Lerchs-Grossmann method yields the selected ultimate pit (MP1) with 30 million tons mineable reserve. The mineable reserve is designed for 1 million tons per year limestone production covering 25 years mine life. For the material handling, it requires 5 trucks, 1 loader and 2 excavators to handle 550 tons per hour of limestone production. In terms of financial analysis, 19.3 million dollar of NPV is estimated with the IRR of 45 percent which is higher than the WACC of 15 percent. For environmental consideration, the maximum noise and ground vibration level recommend for blasting are 115 dB linear and 5 mm/s (peak particle velocity), respectively. The final rehabilitation is planned to convert the final pit into a water reservoir which are benefit the local communities. In summary, this quarry project is proven feasible taking into consideration of technical, financial and environmental aspects.