Reserve Modelling – Feasibility Study of Mining Projects & Economic and Risk Evaluation of Mining Projects

Block courses at the Institute of Applied Geosciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (equivalent to 5 ECTS)

 https://campus.studium.kit.edu/events/catalog.php#!campus/all/event.asp?gguid=0x5E549D92BDA74E889C3D73D1ADD43F4A

These courses are sponsored by the German Geological Society. Participants who are members of the DGGV or become one during this course can apply for a subsidy from the DGGV upon presentation of the certificate of participation.

Reserve Modelling – Feasibility Study of Mining Projects

26.02.24 – 27.02.24

Dr. Klaus Steinmüller: Economic Geologist – Mineral Economist (retired). With BGR, he developed a toolkit for the economic evaluation of mineral resource projects and delivered courses on it in several Mining Authorities in Africa and Asia.

Scope: The purpose of this course is to provide students with a series of materials, which facilitates the assessment of the economics of a mineral resource project in an early development stage.

Content: The course consists of the following three modules:

Part 1: From Exploration to a Mine

• Project phases after the discovery of a mineral resource project:
• Modifying factors which determine the development of a mine
• Necessary steps and studies to verify, whether the projects may be developed to a viable mine
• Movie on the development phases and life of a mine

Part 2: Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves

• Definition and distinction between mineral resources und mineral reserves
• Mineral resources und mineral reserves related to the development stages of a mineral resource project
• Exercise on the cut-off grade to establish mineral reserves
• Exercise on the determination of the ore grade
• Exercise on the determination of mineral resources

Part 3: Evaluation of the Economic Viability of Mineral Resource Projects

• Parameter and criteria for the economic evaluation of a mineral resource project: Ore value, Life of Mine (LOM), operating costs (Opex), investment amount (Capex), payback period, operation margin, Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
• Exercises on the estimation of LOM, Opex, Capex, Payback Period, NPV and IRR
• Exercise on the economic estimation of the viability of mining and milling a mineral resource – Operating Margin
• Exercise on the economic estimation of the viability of the investment for building and operating a mine and a processing plant – NPV, Cash Flow
• Peer comparison of several mineral resource projects

The training exercises are based on mineral deposit models and real-world mineral resource projects.

Pre-requisites: Knowledge of ore deposit geology is expected. Some knowledge of mineral exploration and development of mining projects is helpful.