Mod's copper project to cost $US135m

Copper explorer MOD Resources has released a scoping study for an open-pit mine at its T3 project in Botswana, which has an estimated development cost of $US135 million ($A181.7 million).

Perth-based Mod, which is led by former Western Areas boss Julian Hanna, revealed its scoping study on  the T3 deposit today, which included construction of a 2 million tonnes per annum processing plant, an indicative mine life of 10 years, and an average annual production of 21,800tpa of copper and 665,000tpa of silver.

T3 is 70 per cent owned by Mod and 30 per cent owned by Metal Tiger.

The scoping study was based on both a preliminary base case model using a copper price of $US2.53 per pound, and an upside case model using a copper price of $US3/lb.

The capex estimate included $US62.7 million for processing equipment, $US23 million for infrastructure, and $US18.3 million for contingency.

“T3 is a significant new sediment hosted copper and silver deposit which has progressed from discovery to completion of a positive scoping study in just nine months,” Mr Hanna said.

“Total cost from discovery to completion of the scoping study was only about $US2.5 million, confirming the outstanding efforts and commitment of the exploration and scoping study teams as well as the quality of the deposit.

“T3 is also exciting from a geological standpoint because it opens up a wider potential for further discoveries in this extensive area of the Kalahari copper belt which remains untested.”

Mod plans to undertake a pre-feasibility study on T3 early next year, with a definitive feasibility to follow; that could either boost or reduce the capex estimate of the project by about 35 per cent.

Mr Hanna resigned from the board of Western Areas in June.

Mod shares were 18.7 per cent lower to 2.6 cents each at the close of trade.