It is amazing how comparable the two projects are, especially the milling operation:
- 965Mt P&P mill reserves
- 120ktpd mill
- 22 year mine life
- Same recoveries, concentrates produced
- Similar opex per tonne
- Same prices used (Cu $3.00/lb)
The big reason WRN has a much better BFS is because capex is so much lower. Including a heap leach operation ($139M) a 120ktpd mill costs them only $2.9B versus CUU $4.5B. The grade is actually worse at Casino. You can ignore negative cash costs for polymetalic deposits as they are misleading whenever a by-product is more than 10-20%.
Another point I don't understand is why does WRN have a $135M market cap? It has good research coverage and institutional ownership.
| |
|
Shaft Creek |
Casino |
| Strip Ratio |
|
2.0 |
0.59 |
| Tonne Ore |
|
941Mt |
965Mt |
| Cu |
% |
0.27% |
0.20% |
| Au |
g/t |
0.19 |
0.24 |
| Ag |
g/t |
1.72 |
1.74 |
| Mo |
% |
0.02% |
0.02% |
| |
|
|
|
| Mill |
|
130ktpd |
120ktpd |
| Initial |
Capex |
$3.3B |
$2.5B |
| Sustaining |
|
$1.2B |
$0.4B |
| Total |
Capex |
$4.5B |
$2.9B |
| Cash cost |
Cu/lb |
$1.15 |
($0.81) |
| |
|
|
|
| NPV |
8% |
$0.07B |
$1.8B |
| IRR |
|
8.30% |
20.10% |
| Payback |
|
6.8 |
3.0 |
