The 1.86 million tonne Caravel copper project is one of the few large, long life copper resources that can be quickly brought into production to meet forecast strong near-term copper demand.

EV market growth is expected to significantly increase demand for copper, Caravel Minerals (ASX:CVV) says.

Meanwhile, grades are declining in the existing major mines while costs increase due to labour demands, water supply restrictions and rising energy costs.

Political risks are also increasing in many major copper production centres, like Africa and Central/South America.

“The Caravel Copper project is well-positioned with the potential for a long-life project, low operating costs and situated in an excellent jurisdiction, [Western Australia],” the company says.

“The project has access to high-quality infrastructure including grid power, sealed roads, well serviced towns and nearby ports.

The resource is amendable to low-cost open-pit bulk mining and simple metallurgy allows standard processing to produce a clean, readily marketable concentrate.

“The project is on track to be brought to an investment decision during a period of forecast strong demand for copper and rising copper prices,” Caravel says.

A project Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) – a look at whether a project is economic or not — is now underway and due for completion at the end of 2021.

Caravel
Caravel is one of Australia’s largest – and ideally located– undeveloped copper projects.

Building the resource

Caravel says major drilling programs are continuing with results reported as they are received.

To date, 21 RC percussion holes have been completed at the project area, generating ~4,000m of samples.

In addition, three diamond drill holes have been completed for a total of ~1,600m of core.

Drilling to date has shown good results.

In January, a top intersection of 112m grading 0.4 per cent copper from 92m included a higher-grade zone of 58m at 0.53 per cent copper from 134m.

Notably, the zone of stronger mineralisation remains ‘open’ along strike and at depth.

Results like this provide confidence in the geological model and demonstrating potential for improving continuity of higher-grade zones, the company says.

An updated resource is expected to be reported around mid-2021.

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This article was developed in collaboration with Caravel, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

 

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