Celsius Resources Limited (ASX:CLA) has received further shallow and high-grade copper assay results from the ongoing drilling programme at its flagship MCB copper-gold project, held under its Philippine subsidiary Makilala Mining Company, Inc. (MMCI).
The results continue to identify new positions of shallow mineralisation which are in line with other recent drilling results from holes MCB-036, MCB-037 and MCB-038, confirming the presence of an extensive shallow higher-grade position.
The results from MCB-039 were designed to further expand the size of the shallow higher-grade copper zones which are considered to have an important positive impact on early mining options at MCB.
The current drill hole in progress (MCB-040) is similarly designed to further expand the higher-grade copper mineralisation leading to potential improvements to the economics of the already positive Scoping Study at MCB as reported by Celsius on 1 December 2021.
“The results from MCB are continuing to grow the size of the shallow higher grade copper zones.” said
Country Operations Director, Peter Hume.
“We are getting much better definition now on the various high-grade zones, which are important for the optimisation of the MCB mine plan. We can see many good high-grade intersections coming together to expand on the earlier understanding of these high-grade zones.
“Where we get multiple high-grade zones staked on top of each other, we can achieve outstanding results, as recently announced from hole MCB-038 which intersected 611.4m @ 1.39% copper and 0.75g/t gold from 32.5m.”
The MCB Copper-Gold Project (MCB) is located in the Cordillera Administrative Region in the Philippines, approximately 320 kilometres north of Manila.
It is the flagship project within the Makilala portfolio which also contains other key prospects in the pipeline for permit renewal/extension.
A maiden JORC compliant Mineral Resource Estimate was declared for the MCB Project in January 2021, comprising 313.8 million tonnes @ 0.48% copper and 0.15 g/t gold, for 1.5 million tonnes of contained copper and 1.47 million ounces of gold, of which 290.3 million tonnes @ 0.48% copper and 0.15 g/t gold is classified as Indicated and 23.5 million tonnes @ 0.48% copper and 0.10 g/t gold is classified as Inferred.
A Scoping Study for the MCB Project was announced by CLA on 1 December 2021, which identified the potential for the development of a copper-gold operation with a 25-year mine life. The Scoping Study was based on an underground mining operation and processing facility to produce a saleable copper-gold concentrate.
Highlights from the Scoping Study include a Post tax NPV of US$464m and IRR of 35%, assuming a copper price of US$4.00/lb and gold price of US$1,695/oz. Initial capital expenditure is estimated to be US$253m with a payback period of approximately 2.7 years.
The designed mine production is matched to a 2.28Mtpa processing plant which will treat ore with an estimated average grade of 1.14% copper and 0.54g/t gold for the first 10 years of planned production with a C1 cash costs at just US$0.73/lb copper, net gold credits.
For further information please visit: https://celsiusresources.com.au/
