Name of the Project
Santo Tomas porphyry copper project.

Location
Sinaloa State, Mexico.

Project Owner/s
Oroco Resource Corporation.

Project Description
Oroco announced a revised preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and mineral resource estimate on the project in August 2024.

The mine production plan contains 825.5-million tonnes of mineralised sulphide material with an average grade of 0.37% copper equivalent and 1.14-million tonnes of waste material (including mineralised oxide), resulting in a strip ratio of 1.38 over the life-of-mine (LoM).

The PEA is based on a staged openpit mine and processing plant achieving 60 000 t/d production in Year 1 and expanding to 120 000 t/d in Year 8 over a 22.6-year LoM. Production is preceded by two years of construction and one concurrent year of prestripping. Total LoM payable copper production is estimated at 4.77-million pounds.

A conventional openpit truck-and-shovel operation with 10 m bench intervals is proposed. Haul trucks will be used for hauling mineralised material to the crushing plant and long-term stockpile facilities, and waste to the waste-rock storage facilities.

The project is amenable to conventional flotation recovery to produce marketable copper and molybdenum concentrates, based on the molybdenum levels observed in the bulk concentrate generated during locked-cycle tests.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The revised preliminary economic assessment estimates a pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $2.64-billion and an internal rate of return of 30.3%, with a payback of 2.9 years from first concentrate production.

Capital Expenditure
Initial capital costs are estimated at $1.1-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
Yet to be confirmed.

Latest Developments
None stated.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Ausenco Engineering USA South Inc (PEA) and SRK Consulting – US and Canada (updated mineral resource estimate and geological and geotechnical models).

Contact Details for Project Information
Oroco Resource Corp, tel +1 604 688 6200 or email info@orocoresourcecorp.com.