Marimaca Copper (ASX:MC2) completed a definitive feasibility study for its Marimaca oxide deposit at the Marimaca copper project in Chile, which considers a nominal 50,000 tonnes per annum of copper cathode production target for an estimated 13-year reserve life, according to a Tuesday Australian bourse filing.

The first five years of operations are estimated to produce 50,000 tonnes per annum of copper, with a life-of-mine average of 43,000 tonnes per annum of copper.

For the first five years of steady state production C1 cash costs are estimated to be $1.45 per pound and the all-in sustaining costs are expected to be $1.97 per pound. For life-of-mine calculations, C1 cash costs are expected to be $1.84 per pound and all-in sustaining costs to be $2.29 per pound.

The study incorporates a truck and shovel mining operation to produce ore from a single open pit, three-stage crushing, agglomeration, and dynamic heap leaching. The capital costs were estimated on the basis of the material take-offs developed by Ausenco in engineering for quantities and detailed mechanical equipment lists.