AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF AN OIL SHALE, NAHCOLITE, DAWSONITE COMPLEX IN COLORADO, OPTION III, CIRCA 1971

Option III concerns mining and processing a nahcolite deposit in the Piceance Creek basin, Colorado, plus an underlying measure of oil shale containing 14.8 percent nahcolite and 11.6 percent dawsonite by weight, and yielding 37 gallons of shale oil per ton. Principal products are soda ash, alumina, and shale oil. Coke, sulfur, and ammonia are evaluated as byproducts. A two-level shaft mining operation, retorting, partial refining, and a minerals processing plant requires a capital investment of $636,973,000 in 1971 dollars to process 8,000 tons per calendar day of white nahcolite ore and 60,000 tons per calendar day of mineral-bearing oil shale. An income of $257,599,600 based on 1971 prices requires $151,373,400 annual operating expenditures including labor, materials, maintenance, taxes, insurance, overhead, and depreciation. The discounted cash flow rate of return is 14.45 percent based on a weighted average depreciation life of 14.155 years. This option differs from Option II in depth of the shale bed mined and anlaysis of the deposit.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This article was prepared by the Staff of the Bureau of Mines. Notification appeared in the Bureau of Mines--New Publications, Monthly List 690.
• Corporate Authors:

  Bureau of Mines

  College Park Research Center
  College Park, MD  United States  20742
• Publication Date: 1972-6

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alumina; Coke; Freight traffic; Freight transportation; Mineral resources; Minerals; Natural resources; Oil shales; Shale; Shale oil; Sulfur; Traffic
• Old TRIS Terms: Alumina traffic; Ammonia resources; Ammonia traffic; Coke resources; Coke traffic; Mineral traffic; Oil resources; Shale oil traffic; Soda ash resources; Soda ash traffic; Sulfur resources; Sulfur traffic
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management; Railroads;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00040973
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Bureau of Mines
• Report/Paper Numbers: BuMines OFR 33-72
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 2 1974 12:00AM