During this turbulent time in the mining industry, saving a few dollars per tonnage of coal can mean the difference between staying in business and closing the doors. Traditionally many mines pay transportation fees to ship their coal to a prep plant and then on to its final destination. In using this method they are wasting money shipping tons of reject that will be left at the prep plant site.
FGX plants provide the opportunity to save money by constructing them at the mine site so you do not waste any money transporting reject. The only product leaving the site is a product that you can sell! Take a look at the example below for an in-depth analysis on your potential cost savings.
Example:
Imagine that your unit capacity is 500 tph and your yield to reject is 36.4%. This gives you a reject amount of 182 tph. If your annual operating hours were 6,000 hours per year, your total reject left at the mine would be 1,092,000 tons (182 tph X 6,000 hours per year). If your transportation costs were $0.10 per ton per mile and the mine-to-plant distance was 20 miles, your annual transportation savings from using an FGX plant on site would be $2,184,000 (1,092,000 X $2). On average, the operating cost for an FGX plant is $1 per ton so for this example the annual operating cost would be $3,000,000 ($1 X 500 X 6,000). For this example, assume that the operating cost for a wet plant is $5 per ton. By not running your reject through a wet plant, you would save an additional $5,460,000 (1,092,000 X $5). In this scenario, using an FGX plant at the mine site would result in a net profit gain of $4,644,000 ($5,460,000 + $2,184,000 – $3,000,000 / Transportation Savings + Wet Plant Operating Cost Savings – FGX Operating Cost).
Imagine how much money using an FGX dry coal preparation plant could save your company!