World Copper (WCU) - In Super Giant Zip Code

World Copper Ltd. is a Vancouver-based junior copper mining company with projects in both Chile and Arizona. The company’s Escalones project is located in Chile with its Zonia project located in central Arizona. The company believes that its oxide copper projects hold tremendous potential for resource expansion in the future.

Matthew Gordon spoke to Nolan Peterson, president and CEO of World Copper Ltd (TSX-V:WCU) to discuss the company’s recent activities and plans moving forward. 

Company Overview

World Copper Ltd. is certain that it understands both the near and long term needs of the copper market and is positioning itself to be able to supply those needs.

The Escalones project of the company is located Southeast of Santiago in Chile and is a copper porphyry project, composed of oxidised copper mineralisation. The project boasts excellent infrastructure, including road access, electricity, access to seaports, and a gas pipeline that crosses the property.

The Zonia project of the company is located 160 kilometres away from Phoenix, Arizona and has a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) boasting a net present value NPV of USD$ 447 million calculated using a copper price of USD$ 4 per pound.

The company has recently published the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the Escalones project, with highlights including a post-tax NPV8% of USD$ 1,499.6 million at a copper price of USD$ 3.60 per pound and a life of mine (LOM) of 20 years. The post-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of the Escalones project is estimated to be 46.2% with a payback period of 2.8 years. The first five years' annual copper production of the Escalones project is estimated to be 124.7 million pounds with the project’s initial capital cost (CAPEX) estimated to be USD$ 438.4 million.

The Escalones and Zonia projects are both planned to use heap leach mineral recovery methods, which is according to the company one of the most environmentally-friendly copper mining methods available.

The company plans to de-risk the Escalones project going forward as well as enter into strategic agreements to progress the project to production, as well as aggressively advance the Zonia project.

Company Management

World Copper Ltd is led by Nolan Peterson, who serves as President and CEO. Peterson is an engineer by training and holds a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering from the University of British Columbia. Peterson has extensive experience in project development, corporate finance, accounting, engineering and project management in the mining sector. Peterson has served in the corporate finance sector the last few years at both New Gold Inc and TMAC Resources which was recently acquired by Agnico Eagle.

Marcelo Awad is the Executive Director for the company’s Chilean operations and has a long and distinguished career in the mining industry, most recently serving as the Executive Vice President of Antofagasta Minerals. Awad was ranked the number one CEO in Chile by the Harvard Business Review in 2011 as well as the 87th best CEO globally.

Krzysztof Napierała and Cesar Jil are the General Manager (GM) and Manager respectively for Chile. Napierała holds 12 years of experience in mining and manufacturing industries and has a background in business development, exploration, project management, and mining operations restructuring and optimisation. Jil is an expert regarding the latest technologies and methodologies of mining and has a track record of operation optimization.

The Chief Geologist of the company is John Drobe who boasts more than 30 years of experience specialising in porphyry, epithermal and skarn copper-gold deposits. Marla Ritchie is the Corporate Secretary and brings with her 25 years of experience in the public sector.

The board of directors for World Copper Ltd. includes Henk van Alphen, the founder of Wealth Minerals, who has raised more than USD$ 1 billion through various financial transactions throughout his career. The board of directors further includes Roberto Fréraut and Patrick Burns both geologists with 30 and 40 years of experience respectively, Tim McCutcheon a capital markets professional, Robert Kopple an experienced investor and businessman and Keith Henderson a seasoned mining industry executive. Daniel MacNeil is also part of the team and serves as the technical advisor to World Copper Ltd.

The seasoned management team is entrusted with the company’s projects in Arizona and Chile.

Projects

World Copper Ltd. believes that the renewed interest copper enjoys by the world, due to its use in electronics, will only continue to grow in the coming years. The company is actively advancing its oxide copper projects to be well-positioned to meet the impending world copper demand.

Zonia

The Zonia Copper oxide project of the company is located 160 km away from Phoenix Arizona and has been under private ownership for almost 100 years. The property has seen approximately 60,000 m of drilling which covers 30% of the property. The project hosts oxide copper mineralisation which is open to the Northeast and which World Copper Ltd believes gives the project considerable expansion opportunity.

The Zonia project has a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) which was conducted in 2018 by the project's previous owners Cardero Resources. World Copper Ltd. and Cardero Resources were merged in 2021 and led to World Copper Ltd. absorbing the Zonia project into its asset register. The PEA of the project outlines an open-pit, copper heap leach project with a 9-year life of mine (LOM). The project boasts a strip ratio of 1:1 and a total of 510 million pounds of copper in inferred and indicated mineral resources.

The preliminary economic assessment further boasts an after-tax NPV8% of USD$ 177 million and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 29 %. The Zonia project has a payback period of 2.89 years as well as an initial capital cost (CAPEX) of USD$ 198 million and a cumulative net cash flow after taxes of USD$ 331 million.

The company plans to aggressively advance the Zonia project with Peterson stating:

“We can fast-track this project into a development story… we're doing strategic assessments right now on it, but there's also, …, when you sit on private land, you can permit faster.”

The Escalones project

The Escalones project of World Copper Ltd. lies 35 km east of the El Teniente copper mine which is owned by the Chilean governmental company Codelco. World Copper Ltd. is underway with talks regarding sourcing water from the  El Teniente operations for the Escalones project. The company is not concerned regarding operating in Chile and believes that due to 20% to 30% of the world's copper originating in Chile, the current fears of nationalisation of the mineral sector are unfounded and that the mineral sector of the country will continue to function and grow. Peterson states:

“you can't just say I'm not going to look for copper in Chile and go mine somewhere else, because we'll never meet the world's required supplies from there.”

The Escalones project of the company holds an inferred mineral resource of 426 million tons of copper ore at an average grade of 0.367% copper. The approximately 3.45 billion pounds of copper held by the project will be recovered through heap leaching recovery methods. Preliminary metallurgical testing has indicated that the heap leaching operation can reach a recovery rate of 71%.

World Copper Ltd. recently released the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of the project with highlights thereof including a staggering USD 1,499.6 million (USD$ 1.5 billion) post-tax NPV8% at USD 3.60 per pound of copper and a life of mine (LOM) that is projected to be 20 years. The post-tax internal rate of return for the project is 46.2% and the project has a payback period of 2.18 years.

The preliminary economic assessment also shows the initial capital cost (CAPEX) of the project is estimated to be USD$ 438.4 million with an average annual production for the first five years estimated to be 124.7 million pounds of copper.

The life of mine sustaining capital cost of the Escalones project is estimated to be USD$ 192.5 million with the project’s all-in sustain cost (AISC) of production estimated at USD$ 1.28 per pound of copper the first 5 years and USD$ 1.42 per pound for the remainder of the project’s life.

Future plans

World Copper recently announced that it had received environmental approval from the Chilean Regional Environmental Committee (REC) to conduct a 5,000 m diamond drilling program at the Escalones project. The aim of the diamond drilling program is to expand and improve the mineral resource of the project. The company also states that the project holds additional exploration potential, with further exploration of the 16,189-hectare land package possible and planned.

The drilling application submitted to the Chilean Regional Environmental Committee by World Copper Ltd. encompassed additional voluntary commitments by the company which offered more environmental and cultural protections than the stationary requirements. The commitments include the recycling of materials used during the diamond drilling campaign, the conducting of additional training for the teams working on-site and measures to protect local biodiversity in and surrounding the area.

World Copper Ltd. also plans to further improve and refine the metallurgical aspects of the Escalones project through the conduction of additional test work. The company will also continue evaluating and incorporating new and existing technologies which will be aimed at improving the project’s sustainability whilst reducing the environmental impact of the Escalones project.

World Copper Ltd. may look for a strategic partner in the future and plans to systematically and thoroughly advance the Escalones project ensuring its success. Peterson states the following regarding the future of the Escalones project:

“You do the work to develop it, and that includes finding more property, finding more stuff on the property, making your deposit larger, as well as pursuing permitting, and then starting to acquire strategic partners along the way. We're not trying to rush into something that this small company can't handle at this time. It needs to develop. It needs to ferment a bit and become very attractive.”

To find out more, go to the World Copper website