Depending on the size of equipment and the volume of production, the operating costs can be quite cheap. Using 25 to 30 m3 mining shovels/loaders and over 200mt trucks, the mining costs can be less than $2 per tonne. If you are moving three tonnes of waste for every tonne of ore, than your mining cost per tonne of ore is obviously four times your unit cost. there are numerous factors that affect that unit price, such as how much overburden neds to be move to expose the orebody, how much waste has to be meved (stripping ratio), the blasting costs due to some rock being harder to fragment than others, how far you have to haul the blasted material, how far uphill you have to haul it, dewatering costs etc.