RE: Copper %?"Anyone know what % is needed to create a viable open pit leach mine?
i was under the impression .4% was kinda the low end?
is .3 viable and what if copper pricing goes lower?"
dont think that there is a definitive % grade but rather you can get a fairly good idea from Sedar and the minig reports where they speak to a cutoff grade of .1% and sometimes .2 %. One mining analyst said that at .3 things begin to look viable, but I could argue that the % ore and profitability is a function of refined copper price; % recovered (for example in CCU's case they get a high recovery rate); extraction process - both at the mine site as well as extraction from the pregnat solution; costs of mining- for example some mines and ores require blasting, crushing, screening and then to heap pile (like for CCU), whereas others (life FCC) have pit run ore that when blasted shatters to the point that secondary crushing is not required. That alone is probably not a big deal but it could add 7 to 10 cents (if I remember the technical reports correctly) to the cost of mining- thus lower the grade, the higher the extraction costs and the lower the margins.
Hope this helps, but to answer your question directly:
.2% is probably at the low end
.4% is not bad
.3% is viable
if copper goes down lower? We are all SOL! so dont worry about it.
Either way this is developing to be a very large, low grade deposit- oh yes, what about Zinc in the deposit?