Western Copper (WRN-T) says its Casino Gold and Copper project in the Yukon can process more ore than previously believed.
The company has been in the midst of updating its pre-feasibility study from 2008 ever since it released a significantly larger resource estimate in November.
And while the new pre-fease study isn’t yet complete, enough metallurgical testing has been done to give the company confidence that it will be able to up mill throughput to 120,000 tonnes per day without significant losses in recovery or major changes to the milling circuit.
That works out to a 33% increase from the 90,000 tonne pre day rate that was proposed in the original pre-feasibility study.
Perhaps most significantly, the company says increasing the output will come with only a “minor impact” on capital costs.
That’s because there are only minimal changes to the milling circuit required to get more production as the bulk of the increase will come from coarsening the primary grind. Western also says that the throughput increase should bring about lower operating costs per tonne.
Western Copper decided to push ahead on an up-dated feasibility study after the results of its resource estimate update came in back in November of last year.
That update put 252 million tonnes grading 0.26% copper, 0.25 grams gold, 0.021% molybdenum and 1.81 grams silver into the measured and indicated resource. The same update also added to inferred resources as they now stand at 1.7 billion tonnes grading 0.14% copper, 0.16 grams gold, 0.019% molybdenum and 1.37 grams silver.
Beyond incorporating the new reserve estimate and more production, the new study will also investigate the economics of silver recovery, update capital and operating costs, and include natural gas fired power as the primary power option.
Since releasing word of the increase in planned production on January 4, Western Copper shares have climbed 17% and finished trading in Toronto on January 6 at $3.11 on 1.3 million shares traded.
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