Kutcho Copper aims to move B.C. project towards production decision
Kutcho Copper Corp. [KC-TSXV, KCCFF-OTC] says it plans to showcase the upside potential of its flagship Kutcho high-grade copper-zinc project in British Columbia. It aims to achieve that goal by continuing to derisk and advance the project towards a production decision. The company said it will also advance both near-resource and greenfields exploration targets while identifying project opportunities identified in the feasibility study.
The Kutcho project is located approximately 100 kilometres east of Dease Lake. It ranks as a high-grade development project with 22.8 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources at 2.26% copper equivalent (CuEq) representing over 1.1 billion pounds of copper equivalent contained metal.
Kutcho Copper, formerly known as Desert Star Resources Ltd., acquired a 100% interest in the Kutcho project from Capstone Mining Corp. (CS-TSX) in June 2017. Capstone now owns a 13.5% stake in Kutcho Copper. The shares were unchanged at 15 cents on Wednesday, and trade in a 52-week range of 24 cents and $0.08.
The feasibility study showcased a mine plan for a predominantly open-pit mining operation and a technically robust and capital efficient project with minimized footprint. Kutcho is backed by Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM-TSX, WPM-NYSE) with an agreed precious metals stream in support of mine development and a strategic shareholding. The deal entitled Wheaton to up to 100% of the payable silver production and up to 100% of the gold production from the Kutcho copper-zinc-silver-gold project.
“Volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) mineralizing systems like Kutcho commonly host multiple deposits, and Kutcho already hosts three – Main, Sumac, and Esso,’’ the company said in a press release.
The project also hosts a number of compelling exploration targets generated from an initial round of remote sensing geophysical surveys and target reviews. An initial program is planned to test two targets (Esso West and Mother) with 4,100 metres of drilling, and collect soil and rock samples from other field geologic data on other, less advanced targets to better evaluate and prioritize their potential to host new deposits.
Kutcho has completed an underground mining study to confirm that the underground mining portion of the mine plan can be deferred, compared with the feasibility study plan, with almost no impact on net present value, IRR, or payback. The new plan will have the underground operation commence in the first year of production (as opposed to commencing at the start of construction in the 2021 feasibility study), and will operate at 930 tonnes per day, compared with the previous plan of 840 tonnes per day. The company said the benefit of this deferral would be to decrease the initial capital by approximately $57 million and to reduce operational startup complexity.