Petaquilla Costs Updated
- Teck Cominco, Inmet Mining, and Petaquilla Minerals and Petaquilla
Copper have released the results of a cost update to the 1998 feasibility study
of the Petaquilla copper project in Panama. Prepared by AMEC Americas, the updated
estimates are based on the designs, specifications, databases, models, assumptions,
and quantity estimates used in the 1998 study. The updated study estimates total
capital cost to develop the project, including working capital, at $1.7 billion,
up from $1.1 billion in the 1998 study. Cash operating costs during years 1
to 10 of operation are estimated at $0.76/lb of copper produced. Teck Cominco,
Inmet, and Petaquilla Copper regard the results as encouraging and are in discussions
with a view to formulating a strategy for further advancement of the project.
Minera Petaquilla SA is the Panamanian company that holds the
rights to the Petaquilla concession. Petaquilla currently owns 52% of Minera
Petaquilla, and Inmet owns 48%. Teck Cominco is the project operator and can
earn a 26% interest by funding a feasibility study and providing financing on
behalf of the interest not owned by Inmet to put the property into production.
Operating parameters from the 1998 feasibility study include
mill throughput of 120,000 mt/d over a 23-year mine life at grades of 0.5% copper,
0.09 g/mt gold, and 0.01% molybdenum. Under this scenario, production of metal
in concentrate would average 223,000 mt/y of copper, 87,000 oz/y of gold, and
1,680 mt/y of molybdenum during the first 10 years of operation.
