Francisco Basin has a total exploration licence area of 127km2 and is located within 100km of the Laguna Verde project with similar distances to key infrastructure.
The project area is traversed by existing power lines and a water supply pipeline, while a substation connected to the Chile national grid is located at the Maricunga Gold mine which is only 5km from Francisco Basin. The project lies at an altitude of 4,150m and is accessed via the international highway 31 and then a well-maintained 45km mining haul road.
A pumping test programme completed at the project recorded a high transmissivity that corresponds to a modelled flow rate of approximately 80L/s in an operation stage well design.
A scoping study was also published in September 2023 where results highlighted the robust economics for a 20,000tpa over a 12-year period with low operating costs and payback period of 2 years and 7 months. There is scope to expand the resource estimate with drilling programmes scheduled for Q4 2023.
Following an exploration drilling programme completed in 1H 2023, the JORC resource estimate at Francisco Basin has been upgraded from 0.55 mt to 0.92 mt of LCE including an Indicated resource of 0.44 million tonnes LCE.
Average grade of resource estimate
