PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A prefeasibility study (PFS) into ASX-listed Oz Minerals’ Carrapateena project, in South Australia, has found that the project could deliver about A$22.1-billion in revenue over its 24-year mine life.

The project was expected to deliver 114 000 t/y of copper and 117 000 oz/y of gold, at steady state.

“We are highly encouraged by the results of this PFS, which shows that the Carrapateena project is viable when based on conservative assumptions, with potential for improved results from a number of options,” said Oz Minerals CEO and MD Terry Burgess.

“We have reviewed in detail numerous copper/gold projects around the world over the past five years, and there are very few like Carrapateena, which offer the potential of multi-decade production at low operating costs, with the demonstrated potential for further discoveries nearby, located relatively close to all necessary infrastructure and in one of the best and safest mining jurisdictions in the world.”

The project was expected to require a capital investment of A$2.98-billion, while C1 costs were expected to average at around $0.49/lb of copper, including by-product credits.

Carrapateena would produce a net cash flow of A$8.5-billion, and would have a net present value of A$1.15-billion and an internal rate of return of 13%.

The completion of the PFS has also allowed Oz Minerals to declare an initial ore reserve of the Carrapateena project, which would underpin the low operating cost and the long-life operation.

The ore reserve has been estimated at about 270-million tonnes, grading 0.9% copper, 0.4 g/t gold and 4.5 g/t silver for 2.5-million tonnes of copper, 3.5-million ounces of gold and 39-million ounces of silver.

Meanwhile, Burgess noted that Oz Minerals had opened a data room for the Carrapateena project as part of its hunt for a potential joint venture partner to develop the project.

“We believe these features will be highly attractive to potential partners to join with Oz Minerals in advancing the development of the Carrapateena project,” Burgess added.