In-Situ Recovery Mineral Processing Plant Illustration for Denison Mines

One of our long time clients is preparing to advance to production and is working on environmental report. They asked us to create a process flow sheet to explain the In-Situ Recovery (ISR) process chosen for extraction.

Original flowchart supplied along with a floorplan of the proposed plant

Initially they supplied a flowchart, consisting of abbreviations in coloured text boxes, a floor plan of the plant and a link to a website explaining the process. From this information we created a simple pencil sketch keeping in mind previous illustration we have created for investor communication purposes. 

Sketch 1

The team at Denison assigned a Project Engineer to work with us. We created a rough sketch to send him to confirm our understanding. This proved to be an invaluable step. He responded with a clearly written step by step description of the process and a complete list of the equipment to be used, including some photographs. We then created a new isometric sketch using the floor plan as a rough layout and incorporating more accurate images of the equipment.

After seeing the visual representation of the process in our sketch, the engineering team was able to discuss and fine-tune the details.  Meanwhile, some of the site maps we were working on for the report were using slightly different terminology so this was a good time to standardize all the text to be applied to the reports visuals.

Sketch 5

After three or four versions of the sketch and all the elements agreed upon we created a clean digitized version, adding shading, colour and line weight to help illustrate the interrelationships of all the equipment. Once the digitized version was delivered, our engineer was keen to share it with management, which sparked a new round of discussion and debate, however only a few minor revisions were requested.

The final ISR process diagram clearly shows the equipment to be used and the mineral’s path from extraction, through the process to market.

Lifecycle of a mine, recovery of investment, profitability and taxes, taxes, taxes…

I wanted to share a very interesting graphic that we developed for a client. Exploration and mining are risky business, commodities prices rise and fall, but one thing remains constant… you guessed it – taxes.

While the tax revenue generated by a project grows during development and ultimately peaks during full production certain tax streams are present for the entire life cycle. At all stages, the payments to suppliers and contractors are subject to sales tax or import duty. From exploration to reclamation, income tax is being generated by hundreds of employees. Every company the project does business with at each stage pay their own taxes as do their employees.

When you add in the royalties on production volumes and the corporate income tax paid on the eventual profit, not to mention the corporate social responsibility commitments to local stakeholders it’s no surprise most governments welcome new mining projects. A permit for exploration has the potential to turn into a 20 to 30 year source of tax revenue.

So the mining business must really seem like investing on a geological time scale. Sure an investor can see a return as the share price increases but from the company’s perspective it takes a long time to see that investment recovered and earn a profit. Then some of that profit must be held to cover the costs of decommissioning the mine and reclamation of the site.

Critics of the mining sector focus on profits and the extraction processes, leading to poor public perception. It is valuable to see the entire story in order to help develop social license for future projects.

EXPLORATION

No profit

Operating and capital expenditure

Value added through taxes

• Sales taxes and import duties on supplies, equipment and subcontractors
• Suppliers and contractors will also, in turn, pay their own taxes

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DEVELOPMENT

No profit

Operating and significant capital expenditure

Value added through taxes

• Sales taxes and import duties on supplies, equipment and subcontractors
• Suppliers and contractors will also, in turn, pay their own taxes
• Employee income tax

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EARLY PRODUCTION

No profit

Recovery of investment

Value add through taxes

• Sales taxes and import duties on supplies, equipment and subcontractors
• Suppliers and contractors will also, in turn, pay their own taxes
• Employee income tax
• Royalties based on production volumes or values

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FULL PRODUCTION

Profitability

Net profit

Value add through taxes

• Sales taxes and import duties on supplies, equipment and subcontractors
• Suppliers and contractors will also, in turn, pay their own taxes
• Employee income tax
• Royalties based on production volumes or values
• Corporate income tax paid on profits

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RECLAMATION

No profit

Closure and rehabilitation costs

Value add through taxes

• Sales taxes and import duties on supplies, equipment and subcontractors
• Suppliers and contractors will also, in turn, pay their own taxes
• Employee income tax
• Royalties based on production volumes or values
• Corporate income tax paid on profits

Deposit development plan for Denison Mines

Final deposit development plan

A very cool 3D illustration we completed this summer. In this type of graphic we remove the layers of geology so the viewer can peek into the earth in a completely unrealistic way. These are some of our favourite projects to work on – it's technical and artistic at the same time. 

The client needed to explain how both deposits will be mined as a single operation. One of the deposits is located above the unconformity, in the soft sandstone and will be mined with the help if the "freeze tent". The other deposit, below the unconformity, will be mined conventionally. We requested as much available info as possible and received various cross sections and models.

Various figures supplied by the client

We then do a line drawing and go trough multiple rounds of revisions to arrive at the final drawing.

First we do a simple pencil sketch to confirm with the client that we are on the right track

Vectorized 3D draft with colours, but without shading and textures is sent for approval before final shading is added.

Final 3D model illustrated with shading and surface detail. Annotations are the last step left after that.