Name and Location
Cotabambas porphyry copper/gold/silver project, Peru.

Client
Panoro Minerals.

Project Description
An updated independent preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the Cotabambas project has shown strongly improved economics, compared with PEA results announced on April 9, 2015, as the result of an optimised mine plan and processing cutoff grade strategy, along with associated improvements to waste rock and tailings management.

Improved project economics have been achieved principally with mine planning improvements and optimising the cutoff grade strategy.

There has not been a change to either the resource classification from the April 2015 PEA or  the proposed processing throughput of 80 000 t/d.

The optimised mine plan includes:
• a speedier ramp-up of the process plant to design capacity;
• the processing of higher-grade mineralisation early in the mine’s life;
• stockpiling of low-grade mineralisation for processing towards the end of the mine’s life; and
• the elimination of low-margin mineralisation from the processing plan, resulting in higher head grades in the early stages of the mine’s operation and higher average life-of-mine grades, but reduced mineral processing tonnes and mine life.

The updated PEA mine plan has 10% less mill feed tonnes at a 7% higher copper grade, 6% higher gold grade and 4% higher silver grade than the April 2015 PEA. There are also 10% more waste tonnes in the updated PEA than in the April 2015 PEA.

The modified waste rock storage plan includes the replacement of the crusher, conveyor, tunnel and stacker for the transport of waste rock, with truck haulage along surface roads resulting in reduced risk of operation disruptions from downtime of the crusher, conveyor and stacker.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a net present value, at a 7.5% discount rate, of $1.05-billion million, compared with $647.9-million in the previous PEA.

The project has an internal rate of return of 20.4%, an increase from 14.2% in the previous PEA.

The project has a payback of 3.2 years, a decrease from 4.4 years.

Value
The initial capital costs have increased from $1.38-billion to $1.53-billion, mainly owing to the increased mine fleet size to accommodate the haulage of the low-grade mineralisation to the stockpile.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Further work leading to a prefeasibility study has been recommended and will include drilling, engineering and marketing studies, and hydrological and geotechnical analysis, as well as various baseline environmental and archeological studies.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Panoro Mionerals, tel +1 604 684 4246, fax +1 604 684 4200 or email info@panoro.com.