"Until the waste rock is proven, the waste rock cost is relevant."
Highlights of the Feasibility Study (all amounts are stated in Canadian dollars):
- Nominal 130,000 tpd open pit mine feeding a concentrator with two Semi Autogenous Grinding ('SAG') mills;
- Initial Capital Cost ('Capex') totals $3.256 billion, which includes contingencies of $374 million;
- Sustaining Capex totals $1.240 billion over the proposed mine life, including $200 million for BC Hydro tariff;
- Life-of-Mine ('LOM') metal production contained in concentrates totals 4.88 billion pounds ('lbs') of copper, 4.21 million ounces ('oz.') of gold, 214.92 million lbs of molybdenum and 25.10 million oz. of silver;
- 5 years pre-production period followed with a productive mine life of 21 years;
- Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves total 940.8 million tonnes containing 5.6 billion lbs of copper; 5.7 million oz. of gold 363.5 million lbs of molybdenum and 51.7 million oz. of silver on the basis of drill data up to May 23, 2012;
- Within the pit shell there is a total of 171.16 million tonnes of inferred resource grading 0.25% copper, 0.018% molybdenum, 0.164 grams per tonne ('gpt') gold and 1.58 gpt silver which for purposes of this study must be treated as waste rock;