The PFS gave annual production of 67,000 tonnes of copper, 159,000 ounces of gold and 8.7 million ounces of silver at a C1 cost of $1.23/lb copper-equivalent over a 14-year mine life from a probable mineral reserve of 259Mt grading 0.39% copper, 0.33g/t gold and 15g/t silver.
Filo del Sol would be mined using conventional openpit methods with a conventional two-stage crusher, designed to process 60,000 tonnes per day of ore, with sequential heap leaching followed by hydrometallurgical processing to produce copper cathodes and gold-silver doré.
With a pre-production capital cost of $1.27 billion, the project yields a $1.28 billion after-tax net present value using an 8% discount rate and an internal rate of return of 23%, using metals prices of $3.00 per pound of copper, $1,300 per ounce of gold and $20/oz silver.
"The PFS confirmed and improved on our initial work at Filo del Sol and highlights the incredible potential of the project. We remain excited about our ongoing field season that will continue to enhance the project and in tandem explore the sulphide portion of the deposit which, to date, has not been included in any study or economics," said CEO Adam Lundin.
The PFS also detailed the use of a fully autonomous haul truck fleet and recovery of additional copper as sulphide precipitate with coincident regeneration of a portion of the cyanide to drive the low estimated operating costs.
Opportunities to further improve the project include increasing metallurgical recoveries with additional test work and optimization of process parameters, delineating more or higher-grade material through continued exploration, and the future exploitation of copper-gold sulphide material underlying the identified oxide deposit.
