Exploratory Shaft Facility hoist recommendation: Revision 1

This report develops a project position and recommendation on the manner to provide hoisting capability at the Exploratory Shaft Facility (ESF) site during development, test support and decommissioning. The hoist study shows a clear preference for purchasing hoists over any option involving lease or rental costs. Given the planned duration of site characterization, government purchase will yield significantly lower total costs for the project. A decision analysis ranked this option on a relative 0 to 10 scale as a 7.6 versus 605 for the next best option. Double drum-double clutch, 1000 HP hoists are clearly preferable to single drum configurations and somewhat better than double drum-single clutch. While the purchase cost for this option is somewhat higher than the others, the benefits from increased versatility, minimum project schedule impact, and improved productivity favor the double clutch. This choice is favored for both construction and operations phases of the project. On a 0 to 10 scale the double drum-double clutch ranked 9.4 overall versus 8.68 for the double drum-single clutch option. Newly fabricated or suitable unused available hoists are favored over used hoists based on the reduced risks of breakdown, easier maintenance, warranty and start-up assistance availability and quality assurance. While new hoists will cost more to purchase and will require longer to procure, new hoists ranked 8.5 versus 7.3 for used hoists on the same 0 to 10 scale. Current project milestones provide adequate time for procurement