A preliminary economic assessment for the Moonlight copper deposit, which forms part of Crown Mining Corp.'s Superior property in California, showed that the deposit can be developed as a profitable mining operation at current copper prices.
The study defined an after-tax net present value of US$179 million, discounted at 8%, and an internal rate of return of 14.6%, using a copper price of US$3.15 per pound.
Moonlight will be developed using open pit mining methods, while conventional flotation concentration is the preferred treatment technology, according to a March 2 release.
Total capital costs for the project are pegged at US$818 million, including US$513 million in initial capital and US$97 million for life of mine sustaining costs.
As of December 2017, the deposit hosts 636,000 short tons of copper, 18,000 ounces of gold and 18.4 million ounces of silver within 252 million tons in the indicated category, and 267,000 tons of copper, 9,000 ounces of gold and 9 million ounces of silver in the inferred category.
Based on this estimate, Moonlight is expected to produce 1.5 billion pounds of copper over a mine life of 17 years, the company noted.
Crown Mining also noted that 332 jobs would be generated during mine operations.
