“Carbon intensity increases when you have to move a substantial amount of waste per ton of valuable output, but our project has a very low strip ratio. Typically, the biggest power commitment in the copper mining space is the milling required to take it from a coarse rock to a rock that is fine enough to liberate the sulphide materials for flotation. As we are doing heap leach SX/EW, we have much less crushing requirements as we are only crushing at half an inch as opposed to much finer. As you crush finer, the amount of power required is an exponential curve and we thus save significantly on power consumption.

For our back-end process we will be using electricity. We are fortunate that there is a huge solar endowment and multiple development-stage solar projects in the Antofagasta region, and Chile has a progressive regulatory framework which allows us to partner with renewable energy developers. While there is still room to improve energy consumption in the DFS, the numbers are already very competitive.

From a sustainability standpoint, the most important aspect is that the SX/EW process allows us to go straight to a refined metal – a grade A copper cathode – eliminating the smelting stage which has incredibly high carbon intensity on average across the industry. We are positioning Marimaca extremely well for what might be coming in the future, such as carbon taxes and more onerous financing criteria from investors with regard to ESG.”

Hayden Locke, President & CEO, Marimaca Copper