At a time when most copper projects are struggling with soaring capital costs, Marimaca Copper expects its eponymous oxide project in Chile’s Atacama Desert to break the mould with a low capital cost of C$285 million ($205m), CEO Hayden Locke said in a recent interview.

“It’s not just an open-pittable resource in the low coastal range of Chile; it’s a game-changer in terms of capital cost,” he said in July at the Rule Symposium in Boca Raton, Florida. “Our technical studies show this project leading the industry in affordability, something few new projects can claim in today’s market.”

According to a 2022 preliminary economic assessment, Marimaca’s operating costs also fall in the bottom 15% of the all-in sustaining cost curve at $1.29 per lb. over the mine life, which provides a cash margin of 65% at $3.70 copper.

Mitsubishi took a 5% equity stake in Marimaca last June, enticed by the project’s low-carbon intensity production prospects. And since the July 10 interview, South Africa’s Assore Group has invested another C$68 million.

Marimaca is working on completing a definitive feasibility study by year-end as it continues to progress with project permitting.