Hello Abos, Collingwood7 et al,Good questions but you have to...

Hello Abos, Collingwood7 et al,
Good questions but you have to look at all the data.
Yes the key initial question will be what resources report into an optimised pit.
Planned pit depths at nearby Toquepala and Cuajone are around 1.2km so at LC look at going down at least around 1km?
In their initial comment yesterday CannacordBGF write “If we assume a 5:1 waste to ore strip ratio, MNC could be looking at an open pit to a depth of 800m, or maybe 900m to 1,000m. The company would produce 60 Mtpa for 20-25 years from an open pit, subject to continuing studies and optimisations. Beyond that depth, underground bulk mining methods could extend the life to 30-40 years.”, ie talking initial “reserves” of approx.. 1.2-1.5bt.
A pit at LC will include the high grade core (intersected by original hole 4 plus MNC’s hole 31 etc) so average grades in pit likely to be above the resources grades?
So is very likely a large open pit mine will emerge at LC.
Second major point and very important is that LC is in great location for such a mine.
Peru has emerged as vg jurisdiction for copper mining, and LC is v well located within Peru, ie in desert near coast, near existing infrastructure.
So permitting likely relatively easier.
Access to seawater for plant is crucial advantage. As you may know, in mining water is a big issue in Peru (indeed most places), and indeed the Anglo owned Quellaveco project in hills behind LC is currently stalled because they cannot get agreement on water.
So big issue these days is not simply finding a deposit it is building a mine. And many large undeveloped Cu deposits are likely to stay that way because of difficult locations, with respect to political and/or local issues. There are a number of these deposits in Peru, plus Pebble in Alaska, Tampakan in Philippines plus Reko Diq in Pakistan plus deposits in Argentina (see new trouble there), and now we have trouble in Indonesia.
All this makes LC relatively v attractive, eg to Asian offtakers.
And meanwhile, as various broking reports remind us, MNC now ranks cheaply on EV per lb Cu or CuEq in resources.
Reality now is that MNC’s LC is one of the largest unpartnered undeveloped Cu deposits in world, and one in a vg location to build a mine
Bluebottle