Hoisting Equipment Cost Estimation in Underground Mines

Abstract

Hoisting is one of the prevalent systems for ore transportation in underground mines. In feasibility studies and planning stage of underground mining projects, before selection of technical parameters for proper mine hoist, related economic parameters must be studied. In this paper, capital and operating costs along with operating cost items are estimated using multiple linear regressions (MLR), based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA). These cost functions are consisted of five independent variables; mine hoist distance, production rate, drum diameter, velocity, skip load and horse power. The MLR is conducted in two steps. At the first, correlation between independent variables is omitted using PCA technique. Thereafter, MLR functions are established using selected significant PCs and total cost functions are constituted as functions of initial LHD variables. At the end, accuracy of functions is evaluated using mean absolute error rate method.