1-800-400 MINE Mining Cost Service's Cost Indexes for Surface and Underground Mining and Milling Operations May 2008

Cost indexes provide a means of adjusting outdated cost information for the effects of inflation. They are based on statistical averages of costs for specific items and time periods. Following are the Mining Cost Service composite indexes for surface and underground mining and milling operations. Indexes for specific cost centers, e.g. labor, equipment, transportation, are available by subscription to Mining Cost Service.

NOTE: Beginning with our August 2005 update, the basis for the U.S. MCS Indexes was changed from 1994 = 100 to 2004 = 100. Hence, none of the U.S index values listed in the tables below are compatible with the tables published previously on this site. With January 2001 data, Statistics Canada began publishing labor data based on the North American Industry Classification (NAICS) rather than the Standard Industrial Classification 1980 (SIC80). This resulted in some minor changes to all the MCS indexes for Canada. The current and historical MCS indexes have been adjusted to reflect the new classification system.

Mining Cost Service (MCS) Indexes

Canada and United States
Surface Mine
	Canada		United States
Year	Capital Cost Index	Operating Cost Index	Capital Cost Index	Operating Cost Index
1988	--	--	68.7	70.7
1989	--	--	72.0	74.2
1990	--	--	74.9	77.8
1991	97.9	97.7	76.9	79.7
1992	98.3	98.3	78.0	80.0
1993	98.5	98.7	79.2	80.0
1994	100.0	100.0	80.7	81.9
1995	102.9	102.7	82.7	83.9
1996	105.6	107.2	84.6	85.8
1997	106.5	107.0	86.1	86.5
1998	107.9	108.4	87.2	85.9
1999	109.1	108.4	88.5	86.3
2000	112.7	115.1	90.2	88.0
2001	112.7	115.5	90.6	88.6
2002	113.1	114.2	93.4	90.0
2003	112.6	114.8	96.0	94.2
2004	117.1	125.7	100.0	100.0
2005	120.8	133.3	105.2	106.8
2006	123.5	136.8	109.6	112.0
2007	127.2	143.3	112.5	115.2
Monthly 2008
2008 Jan.	132.2	154.0	115.7	120.7
2008 Feb.	131.9	153.5	118.6	122.3
2008 Mar.	--	--	118.6	127.4
Underground Mine
	Canada		United States
Year	Capital Cost Index	Operating Cost Index	Capital Cost Index	Operating Cost Index
1988	--	--	65.3	70.6
1989	--	--	68.7	73.7
1990	--	--	71.7	76.6
1991	97.1	94.9	74.3	79.3
1992	97.9	96.8	75.2	79.7
1993	98.3	98.2	76.5	80.0
1994	100.0	100.0	78.0	82.1
1995	102.8	102.6	80.1	84.6
1996	105.1	106.1	82.0	86.2
1997	106.1	105.9	83.9	87.2
1998	108.2	109.3	85.3	87.6
1999	109.3	108.3	86.6	87.2
2000	111.2	110.4	88.3	87.7
2001	111.2	111.3	90.2	89.5
2002	112.4	111.9	94.3	91.1
2003	111.4	111.2	96.2	94.5
2004	114.8	121.3	100.0	100.0
2005	116.5	124.0	104.6	104.7
2006	118.5	125.2	108.7	109.8
2007	121.5	130.6	112.4	112.4
Monthly 2008
2008 Jan.	125.1	139.0	115.5	115.7
2008 Feb.	124.8	138.2	116.6	117.0
2008 Mar.	--	--	117.3	119.2
Mill
	Canada		United States
Year	Capital Cost Index	Operating Cost Index	Capital Cost Index	Operating Cost Index
1988	--	--	67.0	71.3
1989	--	--	70.0	74.4
1990	--	--	72.1	76.3
1991	95.5	92.3	73.7	78.3
1992	96.4	93.6	74.3	78.2
1993	97.8	96.0	75.7	78.6
1994	100.0	100.0	77.4	79.8
1995	103.3	104.9	80.1	83.0
1996	105.1	105.9	81.4	83.4
1997	105.9	105.8	82.9	83.6
1998	106.5	105.9	83.7	82.4
1999	107.2	106.0	84.2	81.6
2000	111.2	110.6	87.0	84.5
2001	110.6	112.3	88.3	85.8
2002	111.5	114.6	89.8	86.5
2003	111.5	116.7	93.1	91.4
2004	117.7	126.1	100.0	100.0
2005	122.0	133.5	105.8	109.0
2006	124.0	135.0	112.3	119.1
2007	126.2	138.3	117.6	124.3
Monthly  2008
2008 Jan.	130.2	145.2	121.0	129.3
2008 Feb.	130.0	144.9	122.2	130.1
2008 Mar.	--	--	124.4	135.0

METAL PRICES

Our historical metal price tables for copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, nickel, palladium and platinum are presently available only by subscription to Mining Cost Service. These tables list prices for most metals from 1930 to present. In researching data for these tables we came across a piece of history that caused us to imagine the following headline in the Wall Street Journal:

"NAPOLEON ESCAPES - GOLD PRICE JUMPS 24% IN ONE MONTH"

A segment of our industry would certainly like to see a headline like this today; unfortunately, we're talking here about April, 1815 (back when gold prices behaved the way they were supposed to). Napoleon had escaped from the island of Elba the month before, and the price run-up was a result of the high demand for gold to pay the British armies in the field as they set out to capture him again. Speculators had to cash in fast, however, because the gold price settled back quickly after Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo, only two months later.

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