Marimaca Copper Corp. has announced results of the Phase 6 Metallurgical testing programme for the company’s flagship Marimaca Oxide Copper Project, located in northern Chile.
The Phase 6 programme was designed to evaluate leaching conditions to optimise acid consumption, recoveries, and leaching efficiency to be incorporated into the ongoing Definitive Feasibility Study (“DFS”).
Highlights
- Comprehensive 5 column-test programme evaluating the impact of curing, leaching rates, and acid concentration in solution on acid consumption, recoveries, and impurities generation.
- Significantly improved acid consumption based on optimisation of leaching conditions.
- Net acid consumption of 30.6 kg/t from experimental samples – an approximate 25% reduction from the 40.6 kg/t derived from previous metallurgical campaigns.
- Provides further confidence in expected acid consumption with clear potential to enhance operating cost profile for the DFS.
- Confirms average copper recovery of 74.9% – in-line with previous results from metallurgical campaigns (Phases 1-5).
- Flexibility for further reductions in acid consumption with relatively low recovery losses.
- Programme completed with recycled sea-water sourced from Marimaca’s intended water supplier under its water option agreement to accurately reflect process water to be utilised at the Project.
- Further de-risking of the Marimaca metallurgy – allows for improved predictability of metallurgical performance during operations.
- Results will be incorporated into the final geo-metallurgical model to be utilised in the DFS which will define, at high resolution, the metallurgical performance of each ore-feed type in the DFS.
- Results demonstrate the self-regulation of impurities in the leaching cycle which allows for simple SX-EW process design and capital efficiency for the planned DFS.
Hayden Locke, President and CEO of Marimaca Copper, commented:
“We are pleased with the Phase 6 metallurgical results and particularly the implications for acid consumption optimisation in the DFS and in future operations.
“Acid consumption is a key component of our operating costs, and fluctuations in acid price were identified as a core external factor in our projected operating margins as we move towards first copper. The results from this programme show, firstly, that our base case assumptions, with respect to acid consumption, can be materially reduced via simple changes to our operational approach with no significant impact to our expected recoveries. Secondly, the testing highlights that we have further flexibility to reduce acid consumption, with relatively small recovery losses. From my perspective, this is the most important outcome from the testing, because it allows us to make operational changes to preserve margin and cashflow during periods of high acid prices, which increases the resilience of the Project to external shocks.
“The Marimaca Project continues to demonstrate unique positioning in the copper development space. We are excited to move through the final development milestones as we rapidly advance toward first copper.”