TSX-V- and Nasdaq-listed Filo Mining’s prefeasibility study (PFS) of its Filo del Sol project, on the border of Chile and Argentina, has confirmed the “incredible” copper, gold and silver potential of the project.
CEO Adam Lundin said on Monday that the PFS had positive findings, including a $1.28-billion after-tax net present value, using an 8% discount rate, and an internal rate of return of 23% at $3/lb of copper, $1 300/oz gold and $20/oz silver.
The PFS found the project can have yearly production of about 67 000 t of copper (including copper as copper precipitate), 159 000 oz of gold and 8.6-million ounces of silver, at a cost of $1.12/lb copper equivalent.
The project has an initial probable mineral reserve of 259-million tonnes, grading 0.39% copper, 0.33 g/t gold and 15 g/t silver.
Over its 14-year mine life, Filo del Sol is anticipated to produce almost 1.75-billion pounds of copper as cathode, 1.92-million ounces of gold and 104-million ounces of silver as doré.
The PFS incorporates planning for a fully autonomous haul truck fleet and recovery of additional copper as sulphide precipitate with coincident regeneration of a portion of the cyanide, which drives the low estimated operating costs.
Potential opportunities to further improve the project include increasing metallurgical recoveries with additional test work and optimisation of process parameters; delineating more or higher grade material through continued exploration on the company’s extensive land package; and future exploitation of copper/gold sulphide material underlying the identified oxide deposit.