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Capstone Mining to Expand Leaching at Pinto Valley; 300 to 350 MIbs of Low-Cost, Copper Cathode Production Potential
VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Capstone Mining Corp. (“Capstone” or the “Company”) (TSX:CS) announces that its Pinto Valley mine has successfully
About this update from Capstone Copper Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Capstone Mining Corp. (“Capstone” or the “Company”) (TSX:CS) announces that its Pinto Valley mine has successfully demonstrated positive economics from enhanced dump leach performance by partnering with Jetti Resources, LLC (“Jetti”) to apply their novel patented catalytic technology at Pinto Valley’s existing dump leach operation. HIGHLIGHTS During the first year of Capstone’s partnership with Jetti, cathode production per area irrigated has doubled (see Figure 3). A plan to increase activity is being implemented with the goal of generating strong cash flow from Pinto Valley’s underutilized 25 million pound per year solvent extraction and electrowinning (“SX-EW”) plant, which is currently operating at only 20% of capacity. The plan is to increase cathode production to 300-350 million pounds from residual and high-grade waste over the next two decades (see Figure 1), creating 30 new jobs at Pinto Valley. Figure 1: Low Cost Recovery of Copper from Residual and High-Grade Waste Darren Pylot, Capstone’s President and CEO said, “The mining industry has long been pursuing a viable technology to leach low-grade chalcopyrite ores. The results after year one of our partnership with Jetti Resources are exciting because it means we can generate high margin from material that would have been waste. This project represents an opportunity to position Pinto Valley more competitively, which will create and sustain jobs, and economic benefits in a socially and environmentally responsible manner.” The engagement of Jetti and utilization of their proprietary technology was an extension of Pinto Valley’s existing PV3 Optimization Study, which is focused on several low capex, high impact projects aimed at having a material increase to the net present value of the operation. The PV3 Optimization Study is scheduled for release in Q4 2020. JETTI NOVEL CATALYST TECHNOLOGY Jetti’s patented technology makes it possible to extract copper from low-grade primary sulfides, such as chalcopyrite, the world’s most abundant copper mineral ore. Jetti has developed and commercially deployed a catalytic technology that allows for the efficient and effective heap and stockpile leach extraction of copper trapped in these challenging mineral ores. Jetti’s catalysts enable the disruption of the sulfur metal bond of the mine...