International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development

Techno-economic parameters like unit cost of mining, price per ton of concentrate used for mineral deposit evaluation etc, are critical in proper and reliable evaluation of a mineral deposit and mine planning. Every evaluation of a mineral deposit and mine planning is as reliable or unreliable as the parameters used in achieving them. Price of iron ore concentrates vary every year and even several times in a year. An overly optimistic estimate that relies on the highest price of iron ore concentrate in the world market may cause a loss of investment capital. On the other hand, an overly pessimistic approach will cause an otherwise valuable deposit to be left undeveloped. In this paper we have provided a risk-free method of price prediction for mineral deposit evaluation. We have also developed a series of models for estimating and predicting the unit cost of mining for mineral deposit evaluation and mine planning. The result of analysis shows that the unit cost of mining at Itakpe is presently 2.5USD and can vary from this 2.5USD to 3.31USD after 7 years into the future. It also shows that risk free price of iron ore concentrate for mineral deposit evaluation can vary from 90USD to 110USD in the next 7years of operation. This variable cost and price can guarantee risk free evaluation of Itakpe deposit, Kogi State, Nigeria.