Caravel Minerals Limited has reported the outcome of an independent metallurgical process review on the Caravel Copper Project in Western Australia (WA).
According to Caravel Minerals, the results identified new opportunities to boost the project’s overall value.
The review, conducted by specialist engineering and project delivery company Lycopodium Minerals and Orway Mineral Consultants, supports an incremental increase in the process plant capacity of ~10 per cent to 30 metric tonnes per annum.
The company added that the review confirmed the sustainability of the process flowsheet ahead of the start of engineering activities for the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS).
Following the changes, the forecast for annual copper production will increase from 60 kilo-tonnes per annum (ktpa) to ~65 ktpa at a steady state, supplemented by ~0.9 ktpa of molybdenum production as a by-product that can be sold.
The changes will also increase initial capital investment from $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion and reduce the project payback period from 5.6 to 4.9 years.
The company said the mine’s operating costs remain unchanged, with increased energy consumption in earlier years offset by a reduced tonnage being hauled in the final years of mine life.
It added that the adopted changes had demonstrated benefits to the project and have now been incorporated into the base case process plant design and financial model for the DFS.
According to Caravel Managing Director and CEO Don Hyma, the results of the review and update have exceeded the company’s expectations as they highlighted a significant increase in project cash flow and financial returns for a modest increase in capital expenditure.
“Our decision to commission a wide-ranging independent metallurgical review of the Caravel Project flowsheet by leading engineering group Lycopodium, supported by a group of consulting technical experts, reflects our commitment to exhaustively analyse all aspects of the project and strive to ‘build it right’ from the beginning,” he added.
