In the mining industry, processing plants are generally constructed on the site of extraction. Mined ore gets transported by super-heavy duty trucks to the plant, where it gets crushed into smaller sizes before being stockpiled, or transported offsite for further processing. Besides the ore, the mine typically has to move four times as much overburden as ore. Big mines typically have to move 700,000 tonne of material per day. As the mine gets larger, the trucks have to travel longer distances to deposit their load, resulting in significant increases in the cost of fuel and vehicle maintenance.
Read the full story in the Advanced System Level Modeling of Complex Machines Whitepaper.
Poll: Should the UK’s railways be renationalised?
I think your last point is what they're suggesting. I believe the modern way of thinking is to keep these enterprises at arms length from the...