Evaluation of the application of truck trolley systems on costs and fuel emissions in a Swedish open pit copper mine

This thesis evaluates the impact of various haulage systems on the desired production objectives, energy costs, and fuel emissions. The transportation of ore and waste to the dumps could be either done by conventional trucks or by a truck trolley system. The economic analysis for stage S3 shows that the truck trolley system can increase the CPV by 9.0% from -173.9 M€ to -158.2 M€. In stage N7 the CPV can be increased with 14.8% from -332.0 M€ to -282.9 M€. The sensitivity analysis shows that the results are mostly dependent on the diesel price, followed by the capital expenditures, maintenance costs, and the electricity price. The dependency of the availability of the trolley trucks is non-linear, but it is not likely that the availability will be lower than the current case. The transportation of ore from crusher K315 should be done by a conveying system. Although the designs are not optimal yet, a big difference can be seen between conveying systems and a truck trolley system. The truck trolley system is by far the most expensive with a CPV of -186.8 M€, while the CPV for a conveyor tunnel is -74.8 M€ and the CPV of an in-pit conveyor is even better with -67.8 M€. The results are most dependent on the maintenance costs, followed by the capital costs, availability of the system, and the electricity price. The truck trolley system allows a CO2 reduction of 28% in stage S3, and 36% in stage N7. A total of 1.59 Mt of CO2 can be saved. These results are really promising, especially because of the world’s need to reduce CO2 emissions. The costs can be significantly reduced by using a truck trolley system for the transportation of ore and waste to the dumps. An in-pit conveyor should be considered for the transportation of ore from crusher K315 to the processing plant