Pre-feasibility study on granite quarry for aggregate: a case study at Kanchanaburi province, Thailand

Abstract

This study aims to develop long term mine planning and design, equipment requirement calculation, and financial model analysis of mining and crushing plant. The ore reserve estimation and pit design carried out by using MineSight software (Ver. 9.50). A discounted cash flow model (DCF) and sensitivity analysis used to evaluate the financial project. Based on our study, the open-pit mining method was advisable for mine planning and design. Ore reserve estimated to 48.4 Mtons under the mining operation of 2.4 Mtos per year. The project time frame is 22 years which spends 21 years for operation and one year for preparation and development. The project required of 598 million baht for capital cost, spent 148 million baht for operating costs annually. The financial model indicated that NPV13.4% is 2,335 million baht, MIRR obtained 22.41%, and 1.6 years of payback period. The sensitivity analysis of the financial model shown that the most sensitive value was the aggregate price. For example, a 30% increase in aggregate price leading to raised NPV13.4% up from 2,335 million baht to 3,442 million baht. In contrast, a decrease of 30% in aggregate price resulted in NPV13.4% reduced by 53.62%.