Mining Cost Service Indexes: Surface & Underground Mining & Milling Operations

Mining Cost Service Indexes: Surface & Underground Mining & Milling Operations

The U.S. MCS indexes are composite indexes representing the cost of developing and operating a typical mining and milling operation in the United States. Separate indexes are listed for surface mine capital costs, surface mine operating costs, underground mine capital costs, underground mine operating costs, mill capital costs, and mill operating costs. Composite proportions are determined from base model estimates with cost distributions published in Mining Cost Service. The surface mine base model is a typical truck/hydraulic excavator operation mining 10,000 short tons ore and 20,000 short tons waste per day. The underground mine base model is a 10,000 short tons per day room and pillar operation using conventional drilling and blasting, with shaft access and LHD and truck haulage. The mill base model is a 10,000 short ton per day single product flotation mill.

Cost indexes provide a means of adjusting outdated cost information for the effects of inflation. They are based on statistical averages of costs for specific items and time periods. Following are the Mining Cost Service composite indexes for surface and underground mining and milling operations. Indexes for specific cost centers, e.g. labor, equipment, transportation, are available by subscription to Mining Cost Service.

NOTE: Beginning with our August 2005 update, the basis for the U.S. MCS Indexes was changed from 1994 = 100 to 2004 = 100. Hence, none of the U.S index values listed in the tables below are compatible with the tables published previously on this site. With January 2001 data, Statistics Canada began publishing labor data based on the North American Industry Classification (NAICS) rather than the Standard Industrial Classification 1980 (SIC80). This resulted in some minor changes to all the MCS indexes for Canada. The current and historical MCS indexes have been adjusted to reflect the new classification system.

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