Annual mine production of 3 Mtpa at an average grade of 3.86% copper over a 24-year mine life, resulting in annual copper production of approximately 100,000 tonnes.
Initial capital cost, including contingency, is US$1.2 billion, approximately US$200 million lower than estimated in the Kamoa 2013 PEA.
Life-of-mine average mine-site cash cost is US$0.75/lb of copper.
After-tax net present value (NPV) at an 8% discount rate of US$986 million.
After-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 17.2% and a payback period of 4.6 years.
High-grade copper concentrate with an average grade of 39.2% copper and very low arsenic levels.
Improvements to the mining method have the potential to reduce average mine site cash cost during the first phase to US$0.61/lb of copper, and improve the after-tax NPV at an 8% discount rate to US$1.182 billion, the IRR to 18.9% and the payback period to 4.3 years.
The Kamoa 2016 PFS has identified several areas for further evaluation to optimize the project’s economics, including:
The use of controlled convergence room-and-pillar mining, which has been successfully used by KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. (KGHM) at its copper-mining operations in Poland for the past 20 years. Based on detailed analysis by KGHM Cuprum R&D Centre Ltd., this mining method appears to be well suited to the Kamoa deposit and, if implemented, potentially could provide significant cost savings as there would be no requirement for cemented backfill and ore extraction ratios would increase.
Increased production up to 4 Mtpa from the proposed initial mining area, with only limited adjustments to the ore-handling and ventilation systems, thereby resulting in a more efficient use of capital.