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Lara Exploration advances Planalto copper-gold test in Brazil
The Planalto preliminary plan includes an open-pit mine producing 36,000 tonnes of copper a year in its first six years, alongside gold.
Lara Exploration is drilling at its Planalto copper-gold project in Brazil, using seven rigs for a 14,000-metre test aimed at establishing whether the Carajás discovery could support a mine with value above the company’s current market worth, Mining.com reports.
The Vancouver-based explorer said the Pará state project, about 680 km southeast of Belém, is being developed under an open-pit approach that could target 36,000 tonnes of copper annually in the first six years, with production enabled by existing local mining infrastructure and land that it describes as private farmland.
Lara points to a November preliminary economic assessment that set Planalto’s after-tax net present value at $378 million, with a January case study that lifted the figure to $1.2 billion using a spot-price assumption, according to Mining.com.
The PEA work also outlines an 18-year mine plan of 560,000 tonnes of copper and 111,000 oz of gold over the life of mine, with initial capital spending of $546 million and a 3.5-year payback from the start of production. The plan calls for producing about 120,000 tonnes of clean chalcopyrite concentrate each year at 28% copper, and Lara says the concentrate contains no arsenic.
Latest closeGold $4,134.80 ▲2.4%|Copper $6.365 ▲0.7%