Technical and Cost Evaluation of Candidate Large Scale Open Pit Oil Shale Mining Methods in Colorado. Volume I. Technical and Economic Study of an Integrated Single Pass Mining System for Open Pit Mining of Deep Oil Shale Deposits.

摘要

This report describes the feasibility of mining the oil shale deposits of the Piceance Creek basin in Colorado by an integrated open pit system. The study is based upon a comprehensive analysis of pertinent environmental,economic,and engineering factors. Ten mining cases are investigated,and the mine design and cost estimates for each case are presented in this report. Nine of the cases represent three cutoff grades,defining oil shale ore as equal to and above 15gallons per ton (gpt), 20 gpt,and 25 gpt,at three ore production levels of 500,000tons per day (TPD), 1,250,000TPD,and 2,500,000TPD. The tenth case is an alternate design of the 500,000TPD production rate at the above 15 gpt cutoff grade. The report consists of Volume I, a technical and cost comparison of the ten cases;Volume II-Part 1, a detailed explanation of the estimating methods used;and Volume II-Part 2, a more detailed discussion of the technical and cost features of the ten cases than is presented in Volume I.