Expanding Alaska-Canada Rail: Jointly Visualizing Revenue Freight, Development Cost, Mineral Commodity Value, and CO2 Impacts

摘要

Recent changes in global markets have raised the value of mineral resources in northwestern Canada andAlaska, the development of which is mutually dependent on the economics of rail infrastructureexpansion. Transportation decision makers are in need of revenue and cost assessments to plan railinfrastructure investment. A GIS-based tool for mineral resource evaluation and visualization has beendeveloped incorporating expert-augmented mineral resource data for over 22,000 occurrences in theregion. The tool includes the proposed Alaska Canada Rail Link (ACRL) which would connect Alaskarail to the lower 48 states. Users select locations of known mineral occurrences near rail routes (actual orproposed) and based on statistical mineral deposit models, gain an estimate of resource sizes andextractable value over time using current or user-entered commodity prices, together with multi-modalrevenue freight volumes and optimally-routed transportation costs. The tool translates the revenuescenario into likely CO2 emissions based on transport of mineral concentrates to regional andinternational destinations. Users can select and visualize multi-modal transportation networks tounderstand and minimize mobile-source carbon emissions as part of their scenarios. Also calculated arestatistical estimates of mine capital expenditure and operating costs based on type. Importantly, the toolcalculates the Gross Metal Value of a mineral occurrence based on statistical deposit models. This indexhas been linked to the positive regional economic impact associated with the developed resource in termsof jobs, taxes and royalties, and resupply. This information can help decision makers close the loop oninfrastructure investment assessments.