Technical and Financial Assessment of Hematite (Iron Ore) Extraction from Iron Deposits of Pokhari Area, Nawalparasi

Abstract

Iron and Steels is one of the top three major imports of Nepal. Based on the fact that Nepal has large amount of mineral resources, it is important to explore and exploit them rationally. This research paper is carried out to estimate the iron ore reserve of the iron ore deposits of Pokhari in Nawalparasi which was recently discovered by Department of Mines and Geology (DMG), Nepal. In this research work, the technical and financial assessment of hematite (iron ore) extraction of iron deposits of Pokhari, taking an area of one square kilo meter, has been carried out. The tonnage of iron ore and the overburden (which is quartzite and slate in this case) were estimated considering the mining process to be open cast mining using vertical cross-section method. The depth of hematite zone is taken as 100 m. The iron ore to over-burden (waste) ratio was 1:3.36. The financial analysis was done on the basis of extraction of 3600 metric tons of iron ore per day and 8,64,000 metric tons annually. The return on investment (ROI) is 34%. Thus, the research work indicates that the extraction of large amount of iron ore of Pokhari area is economical and it is a beneficial project.