New PEA Ranks Oroco’s Santo Tomas Among Mexico's Top Projects

Oroco Resource has unveiled a new study that significantly enhances the value of its Santo Tomas copper project located in northern Sinaloa and southwestern Chihuahua. The revised PEA increases the project’s net present value to nearly US$1.5 billion, up from US$1.2 billion according to last October’s PEA.

The updated PEA also improves the internal rate of return to 22.2% from 17.3%. However, costs for sustaining and expanding the project have risen to US$1.7 billion from US$1.1 billion over the extended 22.6-year mine life, which is 2.6 years longer than previously projected. Production will commence at 60,000t/d in the first year, as previously planned, but the expansion to 120,000t/d will be delayed to the eighth year instead of the second. 

The new PEA also shows the mine is expected to produce an average of 207.5Mlb of copper annually at a mill feed grade of 0.51% CuEq. Byproducts over the mine's life are projected to include 138.7Mlb of molybdenum, 55.2Moz of silver, and 753,400oz of gold. 

“When we completed the initial PEA in December 2023 it was clear there was additional value to be unlocked at Santo Tomas. Upon careful analysis, a staged approach to the mine expansion and a focus on exploiting the higher-grade near surface material in the early years of mining has unlocked a considerable increase in value. This work establishes Santo Tomas as one of the most capital efficient large-scale, low-cost copper projects in the world,” said Richard Lock, CEO, Oroco Resource.

The company noted that Santo Tomas is more capital-efficient than other major low-cost copper projects, like Ivanhoe Electric’s Santa Cruz in Arizona, McEwen Mining’s Los Azules in Argentina, and Los Andes Copper’s Vizcachitas in Chile.