2.4.2 Costs From Actual Operations: Cost June 1989 Cost June 1978 X Buiiding Cost Index (1989) Building Cost Index (1978)

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2.4.

2 Costs from actual operations


Sometimes it is possible to obtain actual costs from 'similar' operations.
However great care must be exercised in using such costs since accounting
practices vary widely. For many years the Canadian Mining Journal has
published its 'Reference Manual and Buyers Guide'. A great deal of useful
information is contained regarding both mine and mill. Table 2.18 contains
information from the 1986 edition for the Similkameen Mine. Similar information
for eleven open pit operations of different types and sizes as extracted from the
1993 edition of the Reference Manual (Southam Mining Group, 1992), is
included in Table 2.19. Since Similco Mines Ltd. is the successor of
Similkameen Property described in Table 2.18, one can examine changes in the
operation and in the costs with time. Information as complete as this is seldom
publicly available.
2.4.3. Escalation of older cost
Publications from years past often contain valuable cost information. Is there
some simple technique for updating so that these costs could be applied for
estimating even today? The answer is a qualified yes. The qualification will be
discussed later in this section. The procedure involves the escalation of costs
through the application of various published indexes. Table 2.20 is an example
of the: — Construction cost; — Building cost: — Skilled labor; — Common
labor: — Materials indices published weekly in the Engineering News Record
(ENR). The values are year end values except where noted. One column is
based upon an index of 100 for year,. 1913 and the second adjusted for 100 in
1967. To illustrate the application of the index . system, assume that the cost of
the mine maintenance building was $100,000 in June of 1978.The estimated
cost of same buildiing in June of 1939 wolud be:
Buiiding cost index (1989)
Cost June 1989=Cost June 1978 x
Building Cost Index(1978)
In this case
2626
Cost June 1989=100000 x =100000∗1.58=$ 158000
1664
The escalation factor of 1.58 is the ratio of the index values for the years
involved. In a similar way one can compute the escalation factors for the other
ENR indexes over this period. They are summarized below:
 Construction cost factor = 4568/2754=1.66
 Building cost factor = 2626/1664=1.58
 Skilled cost factor = 4166/2376=1.75
 Common cost factor = 9336/5241=1.78
 Material cost factor = 1686/1229=1.37
Other indexes are also available. Table 2.21 gives the average hourly earnings
for mining production/non supervisory workers as published by the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS) over the period 1964 through 1992. These values can
also serve as a labor cost escalator. For the period 1978 to 1989 the factor
would be
Mining hourly wage factor = 13.25/7.67= 1.73

Table 2.22 gives average hourly earnings broken down by industry. Contained
with the publication Statistical Abstract of the United States are values for the
producer price index for construction machinery and equipment. The values for
the time period 1978 to 1991 are given in Table 2.23. The resulting factor for the
1978 to 1989 time period is
Construction machinery and equipment factor = 117.2/67.7 = 1.73

Considering the five ENR indices plus the two from the BLS, an average
escalation factor of 1.71 is selected. The average cost inflation rate r over this
11 year period is computed by
(1+r)11 = 1.71
Hence
r = 0.050
The rate is 5%/year.
It was indicated earlier that such escalation has to be done with some care. A
major reason for this is the change in labor productivity which has occurred
over time.
Productivity is a very important aspect of cost estimation. It deals with the rate
at which a certain task can be accomplished. If for example the daily production
for a one shift per day mining operation is 20,000 tons with 100 employees,
then one way of expressing the productivity is
Assume that the pay roll is $10000/day or $100/manshift. The labor cost wolud
be $0.50/ton

If through some type of change, the daily production could be raised to 30,000
tons, with the same employees, then the productivity would be
Productivity = 30,000/100= 300 tons/manshift

and the labor component of the cost would drop to $0.333/ton. If this
productivity has come about through the purchase of new, larger equipment
then the decrease in unit labor cost will be accompanied by an increase in other
costs (ownership, etc.).
A copper mining example will be used to demonstrate the effect of productivity
changes on cost escalation.
In 1909, the use of steam shovels was just beginning in the Utah Copper
Company Bingham Canyon Mine of Kennecott (Anonymous, 1909a,b; Finlay,
1908; Jackling, 1909). The following data are available from that time.
Todays mining wages average about $15.00/b our or $120/day. The labor
(LCR) of 1992 to 1910 is
LCR = $120/$2 =60
This is similar to the index values for skilled labor. The copper Price ratio (CPR)
for the same period is about
CPR= 100/12.7 =7.9

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