Edge Copper Corporation announced positive results from a NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment on its 100%-owned Zonia Copper Project, located in Arizona. All dollar amounts referenced herein are USD, and all references to tons are imperial, or short tons, unless otherwise noted. All $in USD Base-case Economics ($4.60/lb Cu) After-tax NPV (8%) USD 488 million After-tax IRR 23.4% Total Free Cash Flow USD 985 million Spot-case Economics ($5.98/lb Cu) After-tax NPV (8%) USD 1,073 million After-tax IRR 40.9% Total Free Cash Flow USD 1,828 million Total Copper Cathode Production 784 million lbs Average Annual Copper Cathode Production 76 million lbs Mine life 10 years C1 Cash Cost(1) USD 2.15/lb AISC(1) USD 2.38/lb AIC(1) USD 2.47/lb Total Initial Capital (incl.
contingency) USD 524 million 1 Non-IFRS Financial Measure. See Non-IFRS Financial Measures below. The PEA envisions an open pit mining and heap leach solvent extraction (SX) electrowinning (EW) processing operation.
Mining operations are based on large scale conventional drill, blast, load, and haul open pit mining methods. A total of 354 million tons of material is expected to be mined, which consists of 218 million tons of resource and 136 million tons of waste, for an average strip ratio of 0.6 (waste to resource). With an average mined copper grade of 0.25%, total contained copper mined is expected to be 1.1 billion pounds of copper.
The SX circuit consists of two extraction stages to recover the copper from the leach solution and a single strip stage to produce electrowinning (EW) feed. The EW circuit is designed to produce London Metal Exchange (LME) grade A cathodes onsite with the commitment to contribute to refined copper supply in the U.S.A. The leach-SX/EW circuit is designed as a closed-circuit, zero-discharge facility with all solutions being recirculated within the process. Total resource processed is estimated to be 218 million tons, 93% being oxides, 7% transition, and small amounts of sulphides, with an average processing throughput rate of 60,630 tons per day (stpd).
The LOM average head grades of 0.25% the average extraction rate of 72.8%, and assuming a 0.5% cathode premium, results in total expected copper cathode production of 355 million tons, or 784 million pounds, over ten full years of production. The Company believes that the potential exists to increase life of mine production further by improving recoveries by crushing finer and increasing resources through continued exploration. Additional metallurgical testwork and exploration is currently underway and is planned through 2026.
The Project is accessible by road, has sufficient water for operations and power is available at the mine site from a 33 kV upgradeable power line. A summary of mining, processing and production metrics is provided below. Parameter Unit Value Total Resource Mined 218 million tons Total Waste Mined 136 million tons Total Material Mined 354 million tons Strip Ratio 0.6 Average mined copper grade 0.25% Processing Rate 60,630 tons/day Average copper head grade 0.25% Average copper recovery 72.8% Total Copper Cathode Produced 784 million lbs Average Annual Copper Produced 76 million lbs Mine Life 10 years Note: Totals may not add due to rounding Costs Zonia's life of mine and unit average operating costs are provided below.
Project operating costs include mine operating costs, processing costs and mine general and administrative (G&A) costs. Unit Operating Costs USD per ton Mining Cost per Ton Mined $1.96 Mining Cost per Ton Processed $3.18 Processing Cost per Ton Processed $4.29 Site Administration Cost per Ton Processed $0.16 Total Operating Cost per Ton Processed $7.63 All-in sustaining costs include production costs plus sustaining capital and all capitalized leases. All-in costs include production costs, sustaining capital, capitalized leases, deferred stripping and exploration expenses.
USD per lb C1(1) (per lb) $2.15 AISC(1) ($ per lb) $2.38 AIC(1) ($ per lb) $2.47 1 Non-IFRS financial measure.
