The Tujuh Bukit Copper Project is one of the world’s largest pre-production copper projects, located beneath the operating TB Gold Mine. Merdeka owns a 100% interest in the project.
TB Copper Project contains mineral resources of 1.71 billion tonnes at a grade of 0.47% copper and 0.50 g/t gold, containing approximately 8.1 million tonnes of copper and 27.4 million ounces of gold (including an indicated resource of 443 million tonnes at a grade of 0.60% copper and 0.66 g/t gold).
Since 2018, Merdeka has invested US$176 million on detailed feasibility work to advance the project, including a 1,890-metre exploration decline, resource definition drilling, geological modelling, technical studies, and a pre-feasibility study (PFS), completed in May 2023.
The PFS confirms attractive project economics for developing a globally significant, long-life, underground mine adopting a phased approach. At full production, TB Copper Project will process 24Mtpa of ore to produce more than 110,000 tonnes of copper and 350,000 ounces of gold per annum for a mine life of more than 30 years. For further details on the PFS, please refer to this link.
Recent drilling related to the extension of the TB Gold Mine has identified copper-gold mineralisation extending from below the TB Gold Mine open pits to the underground indicated resource. The potential mining of this copper-gold mineralisation from an open pit is a low-risk, brownfield expansion of the existing mining operations. It would potentially increase, accelerate and de-risk the initial production profile of the TB Copper Project. Preliminary drilling of this potential open-pit copper-gold resource and other high-priority open-pit prospects within the concession area is ongoing.
Following the completion of the PFS and the discovery of a potential open pit copper-gold resource, Merdeka is focusing on project enhancement work, before commencing with a bankable feasibility study. The optimisation work includes the potential for improved metallurgical recoveries, higher underground production throughput and open pit mining of additional copper ore.
Underground resource definition drilling has progressed well in 2023, with 26,290 metres completed as of the end of September 2023. Drilling will continue throughout the rest of the year with a further 10,375 metres of resource definition drilling planned. The next mineral resource update, targeted for Q1 2024, is expected to deliver significant additional indicated resource tonnage.