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Los Andes Copper Files Positive PFS for Vizcachitas With a US$2.77 Billion Post-Tax NPV and 24% IRR
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 11, 2023) - Los Andes Copper Ltd. (TSXV: LA)...
About this update from Los Andes Copper Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":"Los Andes Copper Files Positive PFS for Vizcachitas With a US$2.77 Billion Post-Tax NPV and 24% IRRVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - April 11, 2023) - Los Andes Copper Ltd. (TSXV: LA) (OTCQX: LSANF) (\"Los Andes\" or the \"Company\") is pleased to announce further that it has now filed the pre-feasibility study at its 100% owned Vizcachitas Project (\"Vizcachitas\" or the \"Project\") which was the subject of its news release of February 23, 2023 (the \"PFS\"). The PFS, titled \"Vizcachitas Project Pre-Feasibility Study Valparaíso Region, Chile NI 43-101 Technical Report\" dated March 30, 2023 with an effective date of February 20, 2020 was prepared for Los Andes by Tetra Tech, and has been filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com.Highlights of the PFS include:Proven and Probable Reserves of 1.22 billion tonnes at 0.36% copper, 136 parts per million ('ppm') molybdenum, 1.1 grammes per tonne ('g/t') silver, which equates to a copper equivalent ('CuEq') grade of 0.40%. Proven Reserves of 302 million tonnes (Mt) at 0.41% copper, 135 ppm molybdenum, 1.2 g/t silver; Probable Reserves of 918Mt at 0.34% copper, 136 ppm molybdenum, 1.1 g/t silver.A 16% increase in Measured and Indicated Resources from the Company's Preliminary Economic Assessment dated June 13, 2019 to 14.8 billion pounds ('lbs') CuEq.Measured Resources of 2.605b lbs copper, 84 million lbs molybdenum and 11 million ounces ('Moz') silver;Indicated Resources of 10.416 billion lbs of copper, 442 million lbs of molybdenum, and 43Moz of silver;and increase of Inferred Resources by 130% to 15.4 billion lbs CuEq (13.747 billion lbs copper, 495 million lbs molybdenum, 55Moz oz silver).Initial Life of Mine ('LOM') of 26 years producing 8.763 billion lbs copper, 273.3 million lbs molybdenum and 32.7Moz silver, based on a new plant design with a mill throughput of 136,000 tonnes per day. Annual average copper production of 183,017 t (LOM average of 152,883t).A US$2.776 billion after-tax net present value (NPV) using an 8% discount rate and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 24.2% at US$ 3.68/lb copper, US$12.90/lb molybdenum and US$21.79/oz silver, with an estimated initial capital cost of US$2.441 billion, a construction period of 3.25 years and a payback period of 2.5 years from initial production.Use of desalinated water, eliminating the need to dra...