ASX-listed Caravel has provided its first detailed assessment of precious metals within its giant copper project, 150 km from Perth, in Western Australia, with an updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) calculating that the project contains 895 100 oz of gold and 46.3-million ounces of silver.
The precious metals contained in the MRE are expected to result in substantially higher byproduct credits, higher cashflows and lower the C1 costs, which is expected to result in a valuation increase for the project.
The updated mineral resource totals 1.276-billion tonnes at 0.24% copper, 47 ppm molybdenum, 22 ppb gold and 1.1 ppm silver for 3.03-million tonnes of contained copper, 60 600 t of contained molybdenum, 895 100 oz of contained gold and 46.2-million ounces of contained silver.
Caravel noted that recent metallurgical testwork showed an increase in precious metals recoveries, ranging between 50% and 60% for both gold and silver, up from a previous estimate of 30%. This will have a material impact on revenues assessed from precious metals credits.
The company further stated that it saw strong potential to continue growing the mineral resource base at the Caravel copper project.
The prefeasibility study completed in July 2022 defined a robust copper project capable of producing more that 60 000 t/y of copper in concentrate, generating strong cash flows over an initial 28-year mine life.