Caravel is stepping ever closer towards developing its namesake copper project in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region after securing key leases and heritage clearance.

The company was granted Mining Lease 70/1411 and General Purpose Lease 70/263 by the Department of Mines, Industry, Regulation and Safety (DMIRS), which are both valid for an initial 21 year term.

M70/1411 includes the Dasher Deposit and associated waste rock landform and crushing infrastructure while G70/263 includes supporting infrastructure for the Dasher and Bindi deposits.

Caravel Minerals (ASX:CVV) noted that prior to starting mining activities at the two leases, it would have to lodge and receive approval from DMIRS for a mining proposal.

Additionally, applications for MLA/1410 and GPLA/262 remain in progress with the department.

Getting set to go

The company has completed archaeological and ethnographic surveys with representatives from the Yued Aboriginal Group, which has resulted in the clearing of areas within M70/1411 and G70/263 for development.

Separately, it has completed studies for primary project environmental approvals under the State Environmental Protection Act 1986 (Part IV) and Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Matters of National Environmental Significance).

It will also refer the project to Western Australian Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and the Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water during November 2022.

Caravel Copper Project

While the original PFS had envisioned a 27.8Mtpa processing operation with two 13.9Mtpa capacity trains for the Caravel project, which has an ore reserve of 583Mt grading 0.24% copper, or 1.42Mt of contained copper, the company is now considering the use of a single 27Mtpa processing train.

This is due to some serious capex and processing cost savings from the use of High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HGPR) to replace the usual Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) Mills and the adoption of Coarse Particle Flotation (CPF).

Caravel is already adopting HGPR over SAG Mills in its Definitive Feasibility Study due to its improved capital and operating costs while the use of CPF could further reduce capital and operating costs.

There is also demonstrated potential for the company to deliver further resource upgrades.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Caravel Minerals, 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.

 

Read MoreCopper

Featured Companies

You might be interested in