A portion of the Cañariaco Norte Copper Deposit with selected drill holes collars superimposed.
Since 2004, Alta Copper has drilled more than 85,000m in 289 drill holes at Cañariaco Norte to define a 9.3B pounds Measured and Indicated Resource, plus 2.7B pounds Inferred Porphyry Copper Deposit, with excellent expansion potential through, Cañariaco Sur, which has an initial Inferred Resource of 2.2B pounds of copper, 1.2M ounces of gold and 15.0M ounces of silver and the Quebrada Verde target. Cañariaco Norte also contains a Measured and Indicated Resource of 2.14M ounces of gold and 59.43M ounces of silver plus an additional Inferred Resource of 0.54M ounces of gold and 18.09M ounces of silver.
(see in details Resource Tables below)
In January 2022, a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") was completed and returned exceptional economics, with an after-tax Net Present Value ("NPV") of US$1.01B using the base case US$3.50/lb copper and an 8% discount rate. The NPV increases to US$1.83B when using US$4.50/lb copper.
Cañariaco 2022 PEA Highlights:
Note: The 2022 PEA mine plan only includes resources from Cañariaco Norte, not the resource estimate recently completed for a portion of Cañariaco Sur, which contains 2.2B pounds of copper, 1.2M ounces of gold and 15.0M ounces of silver.
NPV Sensitivities (US$M) (after tax) | |||||
Copper Price US$/lb | |||||
$3.25 | $3.50 | $4.00 | $4.50 | $5.00 | |
6% Discount | $1,286 | $1,556 | $2,092 | $2,624 | $3,153 |
8% Discount | $802 | $1,010 | $1,423 | $1,833 | $2,241 |
IRR | 14.8% | 16.3% | 19.2% | 21.9% | 24.4% |
Average Annual Cash Flow | 204 | 229 | 278 | 326 | 375 |
Payback (Years) | 7.9 | 7.1 | 6.3 | 4.5 | 3.8 |
*All cases with US$1,650/oz gold and US$21.50/oz silver.
Cañariaco Norte Mineral Resource Estimate (0.15% Copper Cut-off Grade)
Contained Metal | ||||||||
Resource Classification |
tonnes (Mt) |
Cu Eq (%) | Cu (%) | Au (g/t) |
Ag (g/t) |
Copper (B lbs) |
Gold (M Ozs) |
Silver (M Ozs) |
Measured | 423.5 | 0.48 | 0.43 | 0.07 | 1.9 | 4.04 | 0.98 | 25.71 |
Indicated | 670.7 | 0.39 | 0.36 | 0.05 | 1.6 | 5.25 | 1.16 | 33.72 |
Measured+ Indicated | 1,094.2 | 0.42 | 0.39 | 0.06 | 1.7 | 9.29 | 2.14 | 59.43 |
Inferred | 410.6 | 0.32 | 0.29 | 0.04 | 1.4 | 2.66 | 0.55 | 18.09 |