thereader wrote: Candente has a large Cu porphyry in Peru that has been stuck in the mud for a decade. There's a hostile community -
https://canadians.org/analysis/update-protests-continue-against-candente-copper-mine-northern-peru - preventing access to the property and high arsenic in the ore requiring expensive processing to deal with. Even after that process, there'd be penalties ($ charges) during the refining and smelting process that make it less economic, even uneconomic. The concentrate (the product produced by the mine, containing 25-30% copper, than then gets shipped to a smelter where it is processed, for a cost) would need to be blended with lots of other concentrate from elswhere, with little to no arsenic, to dilute it to the point it can be smelted and refined. All if this negatively impacts the economics of Candente's project. An experienced mining executive commented on another forum that the project "will not be built in this lifetime."
Santo Tomas, on the other hand, has a local community who want the project to the built, and a "clean" arsenic free concentrate.
I suppose what Fortescue are doing with the investment of US $1.0 million in Candente (equivalent to about 2 hours of their earnings) is getting a near control position in the company for very cheap with the hope that the situation may change.
This investment won't get any meaninglful work done but just keep the company on life support for a short while, after which they may be able to take it over for peanuts. And then they wait and hope the community comes around, copper prices rise enough to offset difficult economics as a result of the arsenic, an they can consider building a mine. Could be a very long wait, but with a treasury bursting with billions, not a bad play carrying a lot of optionality. For Candente, on the other hand, their shares have been declining for 9 years and I don't see that changing much.
The problems at Candente highlight Santo Tomas' strengths.